Ghor es-Safi (also known as Ghawr as-Safi) is an area in the

Jordan valley The Jordan Valley ( ar, غور الأردن, ''Ghor al-Urdun''; he, עֵמֶק הַיַרְדֵּן, ''Emek HaYarden'') forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. Unlike most other river valleys, the term "Jordan Valley" often applies just to ...

, located in the

Wadi al-Hasa Wadi al-Hasa ( ar, وادي الحسا), known from the Hebrew Bible as the valley and brook of Zered ( he, זרד), is a wadi in western Jordan. It is located between the Karak and Tafilah governorates. Geography The wadi is very big and lon ...

. It is situated between the governorates of Karak and

Tafilah Tafilah ( ar, الطفيلة, 'aṭ-Ṭafīlah, ), also spelled Tafila, is a town with a population of 27,559 people in southern Jordan, located southwest of Amman. It is the capital of Tafilah Governorate. It is well known for having green gar ...

, near the southern Dead Sea. The location is depicted on the 6th-century Madaba map as "Zoara." Ghor as-Safi is perhaps best known for its historical) sugar cane factory.

Archaeology

Many excavations were facilitated by the Hellenic Society for Near Eastern Studies (HSNES) and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan since the 1990s, and Dr. Konstantinos D. Politis directed most of these archaeological projects. Archaeological work was ongoing as of at least 2017. Archaeological investigation at Tawahin es-Sukkar and other sites in the area suggest "a population with a

Nabataean The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; Arabic: , , singular , ; compare grc, Ναβαταῖος, translit=Nabataîos; la, Nabataeus) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern L ...

character living on the south-eastern shores of the Dead Sea from the 1st-6th centuries A.D." Finds at the site suggest presence of human settlement for several different historical eras: 8th to 9th, 12th to 14th, 15th to 16th, and 20th centuries (including the Early Bronze,

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

, and late Islamic Periods).

Tawahin es-Sukkar sugar cane factory

Efforts were mostly focused on learning about a sugar factory located at sub-site Tawahin as-Sukkar (also known as Tawahin es-Sukkar or Maṣna‘ as-Sukkar). Locally produced sugar would have been sold as an export throughout the world; sugar is considered by some scholars to have been the "cash crop" of the southern Levant during the medieval period. There is both an eastern and western pressing room which helped archaeologists understand the settlement and agricultural patterns at the site since 12,000 years ago. The pressing rooms are accompanied by a

penstock A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydro turbines and sewerage systems. The term is inherited from the earlier technology of mill ponds and watermills. H ...

used for irrigation and water resource management. It is believed that a building nearby to the pressing rooms was used to boil the raw sugar cane in order to make refined sugar, based on sugar fragment evidence displayed at the site. Sugar and molasses pots were among the materials recovered during excavations.

Lot's Cave

Also near this location is Deir 'Ain 'Abata / Saint Lot's Cave, with the excavated ruins of the Byzantine Monastery of St Lot.

Tourism

Ghor es-Safi houses the

Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth The Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth (Arabic: متحف أخفض مكان على الأرض) is a museum located in the Ghor es-Safi, Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a co ...

, which displays many archaeological discoveries from the surrounding area. Since 2014 especially, work has been done to conserve the Tawahin as-Sukkar archaeological site and make it accessible to visitors. Agro-tourism is a growing source of employment in Safi, such as through the Jordan Southern Ghawr Company.

Geology

The area of Ghor es-Safi is characterized by the Saramuji conglomerates dating back to the Proterozoic, somewhere between 595 and 600 mya (million years ago). The area's geological origin could be associated with similar conglomerate formations from the Upper Proterozoic, such as those in

Shammar The tribe of Shammar ( ar, شَمَّر, Šammar) is a tribal Arab Qahtan confederation, descended from the Yemeni tribe of Tayy as they originated in Yemen before migrating into present day Saudi Arabia, It is the biggest branch of Tayy tribe. I ...

and several areas of the Arabian-Nubian Shield.Moumani et al. (2011), p .11 The area around Ghor es-Safi is composed of alternating horizons of boulder conglomerates and

arkosic Arkose () or arkosic sandstone is a detrital sedimentary rock, specifically a type of sandstone containing at least 25% feldspar. Arkosic sand is sand that is similarly rich in feldspar, and thus the potential precursor of arkose. Quartz is ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

(the latter with green impurities due to chlorite and

epidote Epidote is a calcium aluminium iron sorosilicate mineral. Description Well developed crystals of epidote, Ca2Al2(Fe3+;Al)(SiO4)(Si2O7)O(OH), crystallizing in the monoclinic system, are of frequent occurrence: they are commonly prismatic in hab ...

from early

metamorphism Metamorphism is the transformation of existing rock (the protolith) to rock with a different mineral composition or texture. Metamorphism takes place at temperatures in excess of , and often also at elevated pressure or in the presence of ch ...

References

External links

Photos of the Sugar Factory at Ghor es-Safi
from the USAID SCHEP collection in the American Center of Research Photo Archive
Photos of Ghor Es-Safi
at the American Center of Research Archaeological sites in Jordan {{jordan-geo-stub