Dana Biosphere Reserve

About Dana Biosphere Reserve

The Dana Biosphere Reserve is Jordan's largest nature reserve, some 308 square kilometres in the south of the country near Tafilah, established by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) in 1989. It drops from the Qadisiyah plateau at 1,500 m to the desert of Wadi Araba near sea level, so a single valley holds four biogeographic zones: Mediterranean, Irano-Turanian, Saharo-Arabian and Sudanian. That is the source of its richness: about 700 plant species, 215 birds and 38 mammals, among them the Nubian ibex, the sand cat and the caracal, and the region's largest breeding colony of the Syrian serin. The Ata'ta tribe have lived here for about four hundred years, and the reserve's archaeology runs from the Stone Age to the Romans, including the copper miners of Khirbet Faynan at the bottom of the valley. The visit starts in Dana village, an Ottoman stone village perched over the valley that preserves the look of 19th-century Jordanian villages, revived by a local cooperative and an RSCN guesthouse. From the village sets out Jordan's best-known walk, the Wadi Dana Trail, which descends about 14 km through the valley to the Feynan Ecolodge, run on solar power and candlelight, alongside shorter trails around the village and in the Rummana area, where the RSCN runs its summer campsite.

Where:

Dana, Jordan