Wadi Mujib

About this place

A deep gorge draining into the Dead Sea, and the lowest nature reserve on earth — its entrance sits at about four hundred metres below sea level. What people come for is not the view but walking in the water. The Siq Trail is the famous one: you enter from the visitor centre at the bridge and walk upstream inside the gorge itself, in the watercourse between red rock walls that rise tens of metres and close in until the light nearly goes, until you reach a waterfall to swim beneath and then return with the current. The trail is wet from end to end — you are not walking beside the water but in it, and in places it reaches chest height and you pull yourself up on ropes fixed to the rock. A life jacket is issued and compulsory. And here is what to know before booking: the trail is seasonal and closes completely in winter — roughly November to March — because of flash-flood danger, and opens in summer. That is the opposite of what people expect of Jordan. It does not suit non-swimmers or young children, and a minimum age is enforced. Longer guided trails also exist, requiring booking and taking a full day. About an hour and a half from Amman, on the Dead Sea road, so the two combine in one day.