For generations, the Bedouins of Wadi Musa in southern Jordan lived from goat herding and small-scale farming, sustained by the rhythms of the land and the strength of closeknit communities. But in 1985, Petra — long known only to a few — was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What had once been a remote hinterland rapidly transformed into one of the region’s most visited tourist destinations, drawing hundreds of thousands each year.

Just above the ancient stone city lies the village of Umm Sayhoun, home to the indigenous Bdoul Bedouin tribe. While the exact date of their settlement in Petra remains uncertain, nomadic tribes are known to have inhabited the area since at least the 1500s.

In 2014, Viktor Hübner visited the village several times and was welcomed into the home of Saleman and his extended family. Saleman is the husband of three wives and the father of fifteen children. Together, they are goatherds — continuing a way of life under the desert sun that has endured for centuries.

During his visits, Hübner took part in family gatherings, in long, meandering afternoons with young Bdoul men, and in the three-day wedding celebration of Saleman’s eldest son, Mohammed. Most of his time, however, was spent in the company of Agile, Saleman’s first and eldest wife. At her side, he witnessed the quiet labor and dignity of a woman tending goats in the rugged terrain above Petra — her movements shaped by tradition, her endurance shaped by the land.

These photographs trace a personal narrative — that of a Bdoul Bedouin family living at the edge of two worlds: between the constancy of ancestral customs and the shifting tides of tourism, modernity, and change.

For generations, the Bedouins of Wadi Musa in southern Jordan lived from goat herding and small-scale farming, sustained by the rhythms of the land and the strength of closeknit communities. But in 1985, Petra — long known only to a few — was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What had once been a remote hinterland rapidly transformed into one of the region’s most visited tourist destinations, drawing hundreds of thousands each year.

Just above the ancient stone city lies the village of Umm Sayhoun, home to the indigenous Bdoul Bedouin tribe. While the exact date of their settlement in Petra remains uncertain, nomadic tribes are known to have inhabited the area since at least the 1500s.

In 2014, Viktor Hübner visited the village several times and was welcomed into the home of Saleman and his extended family. Saleman is the husband of three wives and the father of fifteen children. Together, they are goatherds — continuing a way of life under the desert sun that has endured for centuries.