Wadi Feynan or Wadi Faynan ( ar, وادي فينان) is a major

wadi Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water onl ...

(seasonal river valley) and

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

in southern

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, on the border between

Tafilah Governorate Tafilah ( ar, الطفيلة) is one of the governorates of Jordan, located about 180 km south-west of Amman, Jordan's capital. Tafilah Governorate is bordered by Karak Governorate to the north, Ma'an Governorate to the east and south, Aqab ...

and

Aqaba Aqaba (, also ; ar, العقبة, al-ʿAqaba, al-ʿAgaba, ) is the only coastal city in Jordan and the largest and most populous city on the Gulf of Aqaba. Situated in southernmost Jordan, Aqaba is the administrative centre of the Aqaba Govern ...

and

Ma'an Governorate Ma'an ( ar, معان) is one of the governorates of Jordan, it is located south of Amman, Jordan's capital. Its capital is the city of Ma'an. This governorate is the largest in the kingdom of Jordan by area. History The land of the Governorate ...

s. It originates in the southern

Jordanian Highlands The Jordanian Highlands is a mountain range in Jordan. It extends north and south through the western portion of the country, between the Red Sea- Dead Sea depression to the west and a plateau to the east. The highlands are home to most of Jordan' ...

with the confluence of Wadi Dana and Wadi Ghuweyr, and drains into the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

via

Wadi Araba The Arabah, Araba or Aravah ( he, הָעֲרָבָה, ''hāʿĂrāḇā''; ar, وادي عربة, ''Wādī ʿAraba''; lit. "desolate and dry area") is a loosely defined geographic area south of the Dead Sea basin, which forms part of the borde ...

. Historically, the area had the largest copper deposits in the

Southern Levant The Southern Levant is a Region, geographical region encompassing the southern half of the Levant. It corresponds approximately to modern-day Israel, State of Palestine, Palestine, and Jordan; some definitions also include southern Lebanon, southe ...

, which were intensively exploited from the

Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

(4500–3100 BCE) through to the Mamluk period (1250–1516 CE). It also has a number of significant early prehistoric sites. Part of the wadi is included in the

Dana Biosphere Reserve Dana Biosphere Reserve is List of nature reserves in Jordan, Jordan's largest nature reserve, located in south-central Jordan. Dana Biosphere Reserve was founded in 1989 in the area in and around the Dana, Jordan, Dana village and Wadi Dana comp ...

. The

Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature The Royal Society for The Conservation of Nature (RSCN) is an independent voluntary organization that is devoted to the conservation of Jordan's natural resources; it was established in 1966 with the late King Hussein as Honorary President. R ...

(RSCN) opened the first of its

eco hotel An eco hotel, or a green hotel, is an environmentally sustainable hotel or accommodation that has made important environmental improvements to its structure in order to minimize its impact on the natural environment. The basic definition of an ec ...

s, the Feynan Ecolodge, there in 2005.

Archaeological sites

* Barqa al-Hetiye *

Khirbat Faynan Khirbat Faynan, known in late Roman and Byzantine texts as Phaino or Phaeno, is an archaeological site in Wadi Faynan, southern Jordan. It lies just south of the Dead Sea in Jordan. The site was an ancient copper mine that overlooks two Wadis and ...

Khirbat en-Nahas Khirbet en-Nahas, also spelled Khirbat en-Nahas, is one of the largest copper mining and smelting sites of the ancient world, built around 3,000 years ago. It is located in Wadi Faynan, between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, now in Jordan. ...

Wadi Faynan 16 Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water o ...

Excavations

Archaeological sites in Faynan have been extensively excavated by the Edom Lowlands Regional Archaeology Project, led by

Thomas E. Levy Thomas Evan Levy is Distinguished Professor and holds the Norma Kershaw Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at the University of California, San Diego. He is a member of the Department of Anthropology and Jewish Stu ...

and Mohammad Najjar. Levy and Najjar have argued that

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

sites in the region relate to the earliest phases of the Biblical kingdom of

Edom Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and east.N ...

. These scholars, along with

Erez Ben-Yosef Erez Ben-Yosef is an Israeli archaeologist best known for leading 21st century digs at the ancient copper mines in the Timna Valley, Sinai peninsula. He is Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University. Ben-Yosef earned the B.A., B.Sc., and M.Sc ...

, also argue that Pharaoh

Shoshenk I Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq I ( Egyptian ''ššnq''; reigned c. 943–922 BC)—also known as Shashank or Sheshonk or Sheshonq Ifor discussion of the spelling, see Shoshenq—was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Twenty-seco ...

of Egypt (the Biblical "Shishak"), who attacked

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

in the 10th century BC, encouraged the trade and production of copper instead of destroying the region.

References

External links

Photos of Feynan
at the

American Center of Research The American Center of Research (ACOR) is a private, not-for-profit scholarly and educational organization. Based in Alexandria, Virginia, with a facility in Amman, Jordan, ACOR promotes knowledge of Jordan and the interconnected region, past and ...

Feynan {{Jordan-geo-stub

Archaeological sites

Excavations

See also

References

External links