The modern town spread along the ridge above the entrance to Petra — small, sprawling, almost entirely built since the 1980s to serve the visitors. This is where you sleep, eat, and start your days. Hotels of all grades line the road that descends to the site; restaurants cluster along the upper street.
The town is functional rather than charming, but it has its own rhythms. Look for the spring of Ain Musa at the top of the village, with its small mosque. The original Bedouin village of B'doul was here too — the families now resettled at Umm Sayhoun above the site used to live inside Petra itself, in the tombs and caves, until the 1985 UNESCO designation moved them out.