In Jordan’s desert, ancient rock art finds modern defenders

Mohammed Domian positions his mobile phone over the car-sized rock, peering at the carved outlines of a hunter, an ostrich, a lion, and an obscure line of text chiseled millennia ago.

“‘Qamat son of Khalaf’,” Mr. Domian says, reading the script on his screen. “No change.” 

He clicks his phone. Upload sent. 

This vast and still valley in southern Jordan that T.E. Lawrence called “echoing and god-like” cradles a sandstone sea of rock art: waves of carved camels, hunters, poems and other writings in alien-looking hieroglyphics and ancient Arabic splashed across cliffs, boulders, and cave walls.

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