Wadi Mujib Nature Reserve

About Wadi Mujib Nature Reserve

The Mujib Biosphere Reserve is the lowest nature reserve on Earth: it starts on the shore of the Dead Sea about 410 m below sea level and climbs through Wadi Mujib (the biblical Arnon) to more than 900 m in the mountains to the east, covering some 212 square kilometres about 90 km from Amman. The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) created it in 1987, and UNESCO declared it a biosphere reserve in 2011. Across that huge range of altitude live more than 300 plant species and ten species of carnivore, alongside the Nubian ibex, which is bred in the reserve, and migratory birds pass through on the Rift Valley route between Africa and Europe. The reserve's signature is the Siq Trail: wading and swimming up the riverbed inside a narrow slot canyon where the water rushes between towering walls, ending at a waterfall about 15 m high before you return the same way. It is open only from the start of April to the end of October, because flash floods close it in winter; the reserve requires every visitor to wear a life jacket, and it takes two to four hours. Other routes include the dry Ibex Trail, open all year, and the long Malaqi Trail, which needs a guide and equipment. The reserve entrance and visitor centre are on the Dead Sea highway at the Mujib bridge, south of the resorts.

Where:

Madaba, Jordan