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The black tents of the Bedouins dot the route from the Dead Sea to Aqaba, the Jordanian seaport that links the Arabian Peninsula with the Mediterranean.

Most of the Bedouin tribes derive from Arabian Peninsula migrants of the 14th to 18th centuries, and they remain famously nomadic, while adhering to the old lifestyle: black tents, herds of sheep and goats, planting banana trees that can survive drought.

"Bedouin weave the hair of goat tails for their tents," said our guide. "The tent is usually divided in two by a curtain, with a small section for the women and kids and the larger section for family and receiving guests."

We arrived in Aqaba late at night and found a hotel on the Red Sea's shore.

The next morning we set off for the ancient city of Petra, a Unesco World Heritage site. As we climbed the hills the Bedouins reappeared, 1,800 metres above sea level. Here they were growing apple trees.

"Bedouins live in a cruel landscape," said Songyote Waeohongsa, who wrote about them the "Tracing the Muslim World", our manual for the trip.

"They have to struggle to survive. They believe in natural rights: No one has absolute right to the land - everyone has equal right to it."

Once a thriving city, Petra was buried beneath the shifting sand, and it was only the Bedouins who remembered it, Songyote said. For centuries they camped among the ruins, guarding it from treasure hunters.

Then, in 1812, Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt "rediscovered" it. He eventually he revealed Petra's existence to the world in his memoir "Travels in Arabia".

The city was at a crossroads of caravan trade routes. Spices, fabrics and precious stones from India and China passed through, bound for Europe, along with incense and myrrh from southwest Arabia and the bitumen produced in the Dead Sea.

We were welcomed by a group of Bedouins with horses and donkeys at the ready, and astride the animals we reached the Siq, the main entrance to the ancient city, 800 metres further along.

"This is where the caravans rested," said the guide.

We walked through a narrow passageway between towering rock cliffs for about two kilometres, tombs and statues carved into the walls, along with traces of conduits - partially made of terracotta - evidence of the water system used thousands years ago.

Our guide told us to close out eyes for a moment as we walked a bit further.

"Now, open them," he said.

We were standing in front of the magnificent facade of al-Khazneh. The name means "the Treasury", but Songyote points out that it was the tomb of a Nabatean king.

The Bedouins believed a pharaoh had hidden his treasure in the urns crowning the facade.

The edifice has appeared in a slew of Hollywood films, including one of the Indiana Jones adventures, but we learned from our guide that the actual World Heritage site is the Grand Temple, elsewhere.

We left the shade of the valley and had a go at Bedouin donkey riding. Then it was time to say goodbye to them and return to Aqaba.

The next day we would be crossing the Red Sea - and traversing a desert on the Sinai Peninsula. We had an appointment with the pharaohs of Egypt.

The excursion "Tracing the Muslim World" trip was organised by the Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks Project, Toyota Foundation Thailand and Toyota Motors Thailand.

It was in preparation for a symposium on "The Islamic World and Muslim in Southeast Asia" to be held on November 28 and 29 in Nakhon Si Thammarat. See the programme at < http://textbooksproject.com/moslemworld2008.htm> or call (02) 424 5768 or (02) 433 8713.

The third article in this series will appear on November 10.