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this is the site of a dam and water diversion to protect the Siq from flash floods

mikdbow (Premium member) > albums > Jordan; Petra

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Album Info:

  • Uploaded by: Photo of mikdbow mikdbow
    In album: Jordan; Petra
    In Webshots channel: travel
  • Tags: no tags yet
  • Date uploaded: Fri Dec 31 21:06:22 PST 2010

Some distance beyond the Obelisk Tomb the Bab as-Siq turns right and appears to come to an abrupt end. Here the ground rises and at the top is the narrow entrance to the Siq on the left, and ahead a tunnel cut through the mountain, with daylight visible at the end. This raised area is the Dam, probably built in the first century BC when the Nabataeans were developing Petra as their capital, and they wanted to prevent the waters of Wadi Mousa in their winter spate from cascading down the Siq in a raging torrent. The dam was rebuilt after a flash flood in 1963, and again after exceptionally heavy rains in March 1991. To divert the waters they had to cut an 88-metre-long tunnel so that the water flowed right around the great al-Khubtha mountain via Wadi Muthlim and Wadi Mataha, rejoining the main course of Wadi Mousa by the Nymphaeum. It was a magnificent piece of hydraulic engineering – but only a fraction of the complex system that the Nabataeans created as the population of Petra increased, and their agricultural production expanded. To meet their enlarged needs, they diverted the water of the springs in the surrounding mountains and, with a skilful combination of reservoirs, dams, cisterns, channels and even pressure pipes, they increased the controlled flow of water into the very heart of the city and to their gardens.

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