Discover Petra
with Ahmad

A City Through a Child's Eyes

"Discover Petra with Ahmad" is an interactive project designed to bring the ancient Nabataean city to life for children and families visiting the archaeological park. The brief was to create an engaging, bilingual experience — in Arabic and English — that could transform a museum visit into an adventure.

Ahmad is a young Bedouin boy whose family has lived among the rocks of Petra for generations. He becomes the guide — curious, brave, and rooted in the land — who leads visitors through the wonders of the city: the Nabataean hydraulic system, the pink sandstone carvings, the desert ecology, the stories of the Bedouin people.

The visual language draws from Jordanian craft tradition — embroidery patterns, desert colors, Nabataean script — translated into a warm, Pixar-inspired 3D aesthetic that children immediately connect with.

A Cast of Ten

I designed a complete cast of ten characters, each with a distinct personality, role, and visual identity rooted in Bedouin culture. Ahmad's family spans three generations: his mother Raya, his father Salame, his grandmother Ageleh, his grandfather Hawmel, his paternal uncle Dakhlallah, his maternal uncle Mousa, his grandmother Naima — and his sister Fatma.

And then there is the Ghula — a mysterious creature from Jordanian folklore, dressed in black, whose red eyes peer through the dark. A touch of legend in a world of history.

Every character was created through AI generation and extensive post-production — refining proportions, expressions, costume details, and cultural accuracy in multiple iterations to achieve a coherent visual family.

An Activity Book

The centerpiece of the project is a bilingual activity book — Arabic and English — designed for children aged 6 to 12. It accompanies visitors through the park with games, puzzles, illustrated maps, and stories told by Ahmad and his family.

The book features the Nabataean alphabet as a learning element, illustrated scenes from Petra's history, and QR codes placed around the park that unlock additional digital content. The visual system is consistent throughout: warm ochres and terracotta, graphic borders inspired by Jordanian tatreez embroidery, and the Nabataean geometric script as decorative motif.

Every page of text was written and laid out bilingually — Arabic on one side, English on the other — maintaining visual balance between two scripts with opposite reading directions.

In the Hands of Children

The project was deployed across Petra Archaeological Park — books distributed at the entrance, posters in Arabic and English installed along the visitor route, QR codes embedded at key sites throughout the ancient city.

Seeing children use the book inside the museum — sitting next to Nabataean artefacts, scribbling answers, following Ahmad through the millennia — is the result that matters. Heritage made accessible, a cultural legacy brought within reach of a new generation.