The Great Rift Valley and Wadi Araba 13th & 14th October 2010

Days 3 and 4

Some geography first - the Great Rift Valley extends from Lebanon in the north to Mozambique in the south, and constitutes one of two distinct physiographic provinces of the East African mountains. The northernmost part of the Rift called the Dead Sea Rift (or Transform), forms the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon - separating the Lebanon Mountains and Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Further south it is known as the Hula Valley - separating Galilee mountains and the Golan Heights. The River Jordan begins here, and flows southward - through Lake Hula - into the Sea of Galilee, then south through the Jordan Rift Valley into the Dead Sea. From the Dead Sea southwards, the Rift is occupied by the Wadi Arabah … and this is where we trekked next. We climbed up to the head of the valley - towards Dana village - a spring fed oasis - and had great views to Wadi Araba.


Some geology next - and to note that the continent of Africa is breaking apart along the Great Rift Valley (a 1,500 mile rift), and a new plate (the Somali Plate) is taking shape. In time, the sea will invade the gap created by the separation, thus forming a new ocean basin. The Red Sea is a widening ocean basin located where the Arabian Peninsula was severed from Africa long ago by the pulling apart of the African Plate and Arabian Plate. Africa is literally coming apart at the seams. (Incidentally the Red Sea Rift comes ashore to meet the East African Rift and the Aden Ridge in the Afar Depression of East Africa and this junction - of three rifts - is called the Afar Triple Junction and is said to be the birthplace of mankind).

Wādī Araba, (or The Arabah), is a section of the Great Rift Valley running north-south between the southern end of the Sea of Galilee (as the Jordan river valley) down to the Dead Sea and continuing further south where it ends at the Gulf of Aqaba. It includes most of the border between Israel to the west and Jordan to the east. Many modern geographers no longer acknowledge the northern section, between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee to be part of the Arabah, but in antiquity up to the early 20th century this full expanse of Rift Valley was all considered part of the Arabah.

This hottest, southern stretch of the Arabah is almost 100 miles in length - from the Gulf of Aqaba to the southern shore of the Dead Sea - and the part we were walking over was around 750 feet above sea level, and is the watershed divide between the Dead Sea and Red Sea. Its very hot and dry - virtually without rain and consequently only lightly populated. Five major tribes settle on the Jordanian side and are Al-S'eediyeen, Al-Ihewat, Al-Ammareen, Al-Rashaideh, Al-Azazmeh, and smaller tribes of the Al-Oseifat, Al-Rawajfeh, Al-Manaja'h, and Al-Marzaqa, among others.

Petra was first established around the 6th century BC by the Nabataean Arabs, a Semitic people who laid the foundations of a commercial empire that extended into Syria. Part of this empire relied on mineral wealth.

Copper was mined at Feinan [pronounced "fee-NAHN"], about 45km north of Petra, from Neolithic through Byzantine times and even later.
The copper ore was cut and hauled out of tunnels dug deep into the rock, and then processed on the spot. There are large slag heaps dotted around the landscape, the residue of countless centuries of smelting. The slag's black colour is caused by iron residue in the ore. The surrounding hills, now barren desert, were once covered with forest. Over the centuries, every last tree was cut down to fuel the smelting process.

Feinan was served by sophisticated waterworks, workshops, barracks, and everything else needed to support the mine and the workers. In the Roman period, labour in the mines was performed by convicts and slaves – a brutal regime offering almost certain death. The ancient population must have been huge - thousands of graves, many marked with Christian crosses, have been found nearby. These mining activities were carried out in galleries and shafts thirteen smelting sites were discovered where some 5,000 tonnes or more of slag reveal a metal production of perhaps several hundred tons of copper! The water catchment in this area was very sophisticated.
We looked at a reservoir or catchment pit that could have contained 10,000 cubic metres or more of water. This was used as a source to feed waterways or ducts, built to pass the water on through irrigation channels. The Nabateans showed great ingenuity in respect of their ability to manage engineering. They built dams, reservoirs, canals and developed irrigation as well as created effective agricultural water management methods too. Their economy was not, therefore, entirely dependent on trade, building and carving - though most researchers concentrate on their role in trade and trade road protection. However given their ecological conditions it is the skill they had in developing agricultural techniques using the rainwater gathered in the desert areas of the Nabatean Kingdom during the first century BC which impresses most. During this time the population of the Kingdom increased and they were forced to conserve their water, yet they till engineered cities and various other constructions - and, in doing so protected the soil from erosion - even during the rainy seasons, they were able to prevent landslides!

We walked along the bottom of Wadi Araba, a classic ‘hamada’ landscape - generally flat - but rocky terrain underfoot. To the west we could see the great expanse of the desert. We crossed a couple of Wadis and, a little way out of Fienan, we passed some Nabatean ruins, (some partially reconstructed). We continued on the bajada* with black magmatic mountains to the left and desert dunes to the right. Overnight near Fienan - a dry goat hair tent camp.

*A bajada is convergence of neighboring alluvial fans that forms a single apron of deposits against a slope (can be called a compound alluvial fan. (fan-shaped alluvial deposit formed where a fast flowing stream flattens, slows, and spreads typically at the exit of a canyon onto a flatter plain).