Wadi Mujib

Interesting facts

The Mujib reserve is often described as the lowest nature reserve on Earth, since its lowest ground lies on the Dead Sea shore.

The reserve began as a breeding site for the Nubian ibex: founder animals from San Diego Zoo Safari Park arrived in 1989.

The captive ibex herd grew to about 90 animals by 1996, and the species was released into the wild in Mujib in 2006.

Although the canyon outlet is narrow, the river drains a catchment of about 6,570 square kilometres of the Jordanian plateau.

The river carries an estimated 144,000 tonnes of sediment a year down toward the Dead Sea.

On the Mesha Stele, the Moabite king Mesha boasts of having built a road along the Arnon.

The Romans guarded the crossing with a fort called Apud Arnona, garrisoned by an auxiliary unit, the Cohors III Alpinorum.

One of the river's tributaries, the Seil Heidan, was known in Roman times as the Aidonas.

Around 71 AD the Roman legate Sextus Lucilius Bassus pursued and killed Jewish rebels in this area.

Raptors recorded in the valley include the lammergeier, Egyptian vulture, Eurasian griffon and sooty falcon.

Why it is worth it

Wadi Mujib cuts through the eastern wall of the Dead Sea rift. The river gathers seven tributaries from the plateau of central Jordan and, in its last stretch, forces its way through a narrow canyon before spilling into the Dead Sea at around 420 metres below sea level. The reserve that protects the valley rises from that shore to 1,277 metres above sea level, an elevation difference of about 1,700 metres, a compressed stack of climates in one dramatic slice of desert.

The canyon's beauty is best appreciated from within. The Siq Trail, the best known of the reserve's water trails, leads into the gorge from the shore of the Dead Sea: visitors wade and scramble upstream against the current between tall walls smoothed by floods. Light falls in from a narrow strip of sky, and the walk ends at a waterfall that blocks the gorge. It is a short trail, two to three hours there and back, but it feels like entering a different world from the bright, salt-crusted shore only minutes away.

The valley has a long human history. In the Bible it is the Arnon, the border of the Kingdom of Moab, and the river appears on the Mesha Stele, the inscription of the Moabite king Mesha. The Romans guarded the crossing of their Via Nova here with a fort. Today the area forms the Mujib Biosphere Reserve, established in 1987 by Jordan's Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature and designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 2011. Its 212 square kilometres hold more than 300 plant species, Nubian ibex, striped hyenas and Syrian wolves, and the valley is an important stopover for migrating birds. Upstream, the Al Mujib Dam, completed in 2004, holds back a reservoir in the upper valley.

Getting there

The reserve's visitor centre, the check-in point for the trails, stands on the Dead Sea Highway on the eastern shore, about 30 km south of the hotel strip at Sweimeh. Amman is about 90 km to the north and Queen Alia International Airport (AMM) is around 49 km away in a straight line.

Wadi Mujib

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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