Wadi Shueib ( ar, وادي شُعَيب), Arabic for the Valley of Jethro and properly Wadi Shuʿeib but with many variant romanisations, is a

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 ...

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 ...

. The

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

of the wadi where it enters the southern part of the eastern

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 ...

is known as Wadi Nimrin, which leads into the Jordan River. The site of Tell Nimrin is located at the southern end of Wadi Nimrin.Alexander Ahrens
"From the Southern Jordan Valley Plains to the Transjordanian Plateau: Current Archaeological Fieldwork in the Wadi Shuʿaib, Jordan"
''The Ancient Near East Today'', October 2019 Vol. VII, No. 10Gafny, S. ''et al.'' (2010)
Map of the Lower Jordan River
retrieved 14 April 2020

Etymology

Wadi Shueib is named for the Biblical figure Jethro, Shuʿeib in Arabic.

Geography and ecology

Wadi Shueib lies west of Sweileh at elevations from to

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

. It is draining an area of approximately . Towns and villages along the wadi include

Salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

Fuheis Fuheis ( ar, الفحيص) is a Christian majority town in the central Jordanian governorate of Balqa. It lies in Wadi Shueib between Salt and Amman, at a distance of 6 and 13 kilometers respectively. It has an elevation between 740-1050 meter ...

, and Mahis, which discharge treated and untreated sewage into its course.

Modern dam

An earth-filled dam was constructed across it in 1968.

Archaeology

Excavations have confirmed that the area was a major site during

Neolithic period The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External Links

Photos of Wadi Shu'eib
at the American Center of Research Rivers of Jordan Tributaries of the Jordan River {{Jordan-river-stub