Not many people can say that one of the Seven Wonders of the World is their office. But for Taher Falahat, our Petra Climate Custodian, this ancient sandstone city is more than a workplace, it’s home.

Taher’s Roots in Petra Run Deep

Born and raised in the Petra community, Taher has been immersed in its stories his whole life. Some of his earliest memories are exploring its intricately carved buildings alongside his father, who was an archaeologist on site. A particularly memorable experience cemented his lifelong commitment to Petra: At eleven years old, he got to join his father in the newly discovered tombs below the Treasury. “That’s when I fell in love with it,” he recalls. “I knew I wanted to do something related to heritage.”

Spotlighting Petra's Invisible Stories

That spark led him to study heritage management and conservation. But unlike his father who focused on the physical and visible aspects of Petra, Taher was drawn to the human and often overlooked intangible heritage of Petra.

“Petra is an archaeological site,” Taher shared. “All the researchers, the people who wrote about the site, and who visited the site, they only focused on the archaeological elements, the things you can see and feel. But the intangible heritage is something really rich in the region and nobody talks about it—the customs, what people used to think, what they ate, their beliefs.” 

‍The intangible heritage is something really rich in the region and nobody talks about it—the customs, what people used to think, what they ate, their beliefs. 

Thankfully, Taher is talking about it. For his masters thesis, Taher documented the oral histories of local elders who recounted customs that hadn’t been practiced since the 70s-80s. “There were specific traditions for specific things,” he shared. “Customs for food, bathing, when someone had a baby, when they would buy a new horse.” While varied, what united them all was a shared spirit of being done with good will. 

This throughline stuck with Taher and motivates his own heartfelt work to safeguard Petra and all that it represents, seen and unseen.

Past Solutions for Today's Climate Challenges

As Petra faces intensifying climate change impacts, Taher’s mission has taken on new urgency and his participation in the Preserving Legacies cohort program has helped him to see his work in a broader context. 

“The first time I engaged with climate change was with Preserving Legacies,” he shared. Before that he didn’t connect his work to climate change. He recalls the annual ritual of cleaning Petra’s ancient water systems:

“My daily work was actually adaptation but I didn’t relate it to climate change until I started working with it [as part of Preserving Legacies]. Part of our job is that every year we have to clean all the water pathways, systems, and canals. This is actually an adaptation. We were working in climate change before knowing it!”

Through his growing understanding of climate change, Taher is now experiencing hazards like flash floods more astutely. The first time he experienced a severe flash flood while working at Petra was in 2018 and he remembered feeling so much uncertainty. But during a flash flood earlier this year (2025), he felt more empowered. “I see [flash floods] differently now,” he explained. “I understand where they are coming from, why they are coming, and how much they impact the site.”

Adaptation Inspiration across Continents

As part of his adaptation work with Preserving Legacies, he is working to further lessen the impacts of heavy rain and flash floods on Petra by leading efforts to map and restore its ancient terraces. These lesser known water management features were designed by the Nabateans to slow down water and manage flash floods but they have not been tended to as studiously as its cisterns, canals, and other pathways. “[The Nabateans] had the same problem we have now,” Taher reflected, “but they knew how to be with it better.”

In addition to using Petra’s past as an adaptation roadmap, Taher is finding inspiration from Climate Custodian colleagues around the world. In 2021, Taher made connections in an unlikely place when traveled to the Philippines for a risk assessment workshop that his Preserving Legacies colleague Marlon Martin was hosting for the Ifugao rice terraces community. He described their lush green rice terraces in stark contrast to Petra’s dry yellow desert landscape, yet he found similarities. “In the rice terraces in the Philippines, when you see it from a distance it’s totally different,” he explained. “But it’s similar to what we have. Although they are for agriculture purposes, it’s actually the same mechanism and idea.”

Advice: Just Know It‍

When asked what someone can do to preserve heritage in their own community, Taher’s advice is simple but powerful: Know about it. 

“There are 40,000 people living around Petra and some young people know there’s a site but don’t know about the history,” he shared. “At the beginning, just know about your site. Know about it more than someone else outside of your community. And by just thinking about it, you will instantly feel the importance of the site.”

For Taher, knowing is just the beginning. And when paired with action done with good will, can become a force for resilience.