Written by: Prof. Ahmad Malaaba and journalist Asaad Al-Azouni
Wadi al-Mujib looms on the distant southern horizon in the area south of Dhiban and the highlands of the town of Shihan, where the land was once a single plate—a large plate the size of a small continental interior plate. This plate fractured at the boundaries of the towns of Al-Qatrana, Al-Jadida, and Al-Sammakiya. From an elevation of approximately 850 meters, tributaries and streams began to descend from the Cretaceous or Chalk rock layer of the Mesozoic Era, forming a network of wadis converging at several points.However, the most beautiful point along this network is at the site of the Al-Mujib Dam, where the dam was constructed on a narrow stretch of land that provided a suitable foundation for a concrete dam.
This dam consists of two arms through which water flows, causing the streams to converge at the dam site. Previously, the water flowed year-round from the heart of the Dead Sea basin—which extends from the shores of the Dead Sea—and covered the governorates of Madaba and Karak.
These two branches are known as the Wadi al-Salaita Community and the Wadi Nakheila Community,The villages of Dhiban, Al-Shuqayq, Al-Yahoun, and Al-Rama are clustered on the upper slopes of the valley beyond the dam, while on the opposite slope lie the towns of Al-Mughayyir and Faqqu’ and a small new village named Jericho, after the Palestinian city of Jericho on the western shore facing the sea—the oldest city in history.
Anyone looking down from above wonders in amazement: What happened here, and why are there so many winding, intersecting valleys? And why are there so many sinkholes and basins—the “khalla” and “harba”?And why are they all concentrated here? It is the intense tectonic and seismic activity that has fractured and reshaped the landscape, compelling—indeed, forcing—the water to produce its famous murmuring sound; it is the intense roar that attests to the density and abundance of the water flowing from the valley’s tributaries.
The region’s natural features and topography defy all the norms and laws of geology, with new landforms and topography shaped by earthquakes along the collapsed Dead Sea fault system.
Arnon is an Aramaic name by which the valley was known; it is an Aramaic word meaning “water,” which was so abundant in the river that the valley was known in ancient times as the Arnon River. The significance of the Arnon was evident in its role as the boundary between the kingdoms of the Moabites to the south and the Ammonites to the north, all of which are mentioned on the stele of the Moabite king Mesha.
This river used to feed the Dead Sea basin at an annual rate of more than 40 million cubic meters, The Arnon River, or Al-Mujib, used to overflow into the valley until the mid-1970s, especially after it joined the beautiful valley to its north—Wadi Al-Walah—which grows deeper toward the west and appears to have subsided or eroded,and for this reason it was named Wadi al-Haydan, which converges at a point called al-Multaqa—meaning the confluence of Wadi al-Mujib and Wadi al-Walah, “the Haydan section”—where the valley narrows significantly after having been extremely wide, as if you were walking through a gorge resembling the iconic Petra Gorge.In this area, which faces the Dead Sea directly, the valley can only be crossed via the bridge built over it.
The slopes of Wadi al-Mujib still bear the remnants of the imperial roads built by Roman emperors, such as the Trajan Way, featuring Roman paving and milestone columns, and the modern asphalt road winds its way through the landscape with twists and turns;It can only be called the “Camel Road,” because the view from above suggests that you are driving along the edges as if tracing the outline of a camel. Before reaching the dam area, the road twists and bends as if tracing the outline of a dinosaur.
After the valley has extended three kilometers from the confluence, it branches off at the bridge and the delta, where a sedimentary delta forms at the mouths of these two sections of the valley, extending dozens of meters into the sea, resembling a miniature spit.
After the valley took on its current form, it was once again filled with massive basaltic flows that erupted from six main crater sites—the most significant of which was Shihan—and covered nearly two-thirds of the valley with this black basaltic rock, as if a concrete pour had been poured over it,but in the case of Wadi al-Mujib, the basalt layer was so thick that the valley once again appeared level, concealing these massive flows and all the major formations and meanders we mentioned,but this hard, dark rock could not withstand the softness of the water, which persistently eroded it, dissolved it, displaced it, and severed its joints, restoring the valleys to their former majesty and beauty.
However, the remaining basalt flows along the valley’s northern and southern flanks created landscapes of varied beauty; some formed basalt columns, while others formed boulders larger than one might imagine, with the diameter of a single boulder ranging from 5 to 10 meters.
These remaining formations possess an aesthetic appeal that rivals similar basalt sites around the world, such as the basalt columns at Santa Carina in Mexico, which are in themselves a destination not only for scientific tourism but also for geological tourism worldwide. This necessitates marketing them so that people can appreciate the beauty of the place and the magnificence of the forces of time at work in this region.
It is true that the terrain and the basalt, limestone, and sandstone formations dominate the landscape, but weathering by water and wind has created areas within these valleys—or on their slopes—with fertile, arable soil,That is why we find forest trees such as the cistus, cypress, and Atlantic arbutus have grown and thrived in the region, in addition to agricultural plots that produce delicious fruits and vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, apricots, watermelons, and many, many other crops cultivated with great skill by the farmers.
There is a rare variety of creatures living in the valley, such as green frogs that burrow themselves into the dirt for six months, as well as many reptiles that hibernate, such as snakes and lizards, as well as many species of mice. You might be surprised to hear the sounds of predators such as hyenas, jackals, foxes, and wolves—and perhaps even hyenas—as we hear from the accounts of those who live in the valley.
With the aesthetic qualities we have mentioned, Wadi al-Mujib deserves to be designated as one of the world’s giant wadi reserves, because it possesses all the natural and environmental elements that meet UNESCO’s criteria for inclusion on the list of natural heritage reserves and geological parks,and it is no exaggeration to say that preparing an excellent dossier on this valley will ensure its success—if not its top ranking—among the world’s valley reserves.
Floods…… in the valley—despite the presence of the dam today—occur especially during the rainy season or as flash floods; many such events took place two years ago, and documentary photographs still show that the water rose in the final section—or what we call the Siq al-Mujib—to forty meters. In the past, concrete markers were erected at heights exceeding 50 meters in the valley, and some of these markers still exist to this day; they were used to monitor water levels and for public safety measures.
