While in Jordan for the EDUCON 2011 conference we got a chance to visit Petra and Wadi Rum desert.
1) At Petra I was intrigued to see the series of rectangular marks either side of the carved entrance to the Treasury. According to our guide Isam, they were the locations of the scaffold used by the artisans to carve the intricate designs higher up on the structure. As the lower part didn’t have this kind of detail they were not necessary there (click picture for a better view).
2) In both the Arab script (here in a carving of T E Lawrence in Wadi Rum) and the ancient pictograms of Bedouin (also in Wadi Rum) the script is right to left. Apparently early written languages (Sumerian, Arabic etc) were right to left because they were carved in stone and this was easier from R to L with early writing instruments. 
When writing with ink on papyrus in Egypt and parchment in Greece became more common, L to R was more convenient. In fact Greek started out R to L and later changed over and this in turn gave rise to Latin and other modern European scripts.
