Ruwaished () is a town in the far east of

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

belonging to the administrative district of the Mafraq Governorate. As of 2010, it had a population of 14,400. Ruwaished is the farthest Jordanian settlement to the east. The Karameh Border Crossing between

and

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

administratively belongs to the Ruwaished Department. After the war on Iraq in 2003, about 800 refugees fled from Iraq to the Jordanian border, mostly

Palestinians Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...

and

Somalis The Somali people (, Wadaad's writing, Wadaad: , Arabic: ) are a Cushitic peoples, Cushitic ethnic group and nation native to the Somali Peninsula. who share a common ancestry, culture and history. The Lowland East Cushitic languages, East ...

, where they were allocated in the Ruwaished Refugee Camp in the No man's land between Jordan and Iraq.

Geography

The town is located in Mafraq Governorate about 240 km to the east of

Amman Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the largest city in the Levant ...

. Ruwaished has a

desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

with an average annual precipitation of 82.9 mm. About eight

wadis Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet ( ephemeral) riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portions of alluvial fans and e ...

converge in the plains of Ruwaished, making it the second largest water basin in the northern desert region after

Azraq Azraq ( meaning "blue") is a small town in Zarqa Governorate in central-eastern Jordan, east of Amman. The population of Azraq was 9,021 in 2004. The Muwaffaq Salti Air Base is located in Azraq. History Prehistory archaeology, Archaeologic ...

. The water floods from these wadis in the winter compensate for the low annual precipitation rate of Ruwaished. The town is at an elevation of 683 meters above sea level. It is also located on the desert highway connecting Jordan to Iraq. The town has a strategic importance from its location as a rest area for travelers to and from Iraq. There is also a military airport in Ruwaished.

Climate

History

It is not known exactly when was the Ruwaished basin first inhabited, however existing Roman water dams, such as the Burqu Dam, indicate that the basin has been used as a traffic stop by the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

imperial armies, and marked the eastern borders of the Byzantine empire, or was part of the Roman vassal states. During the War on Iraq in 2003, Ruwaished came to world attention, as tens of media correspondents used it as a base for their coverage of the war.

Demographics

The Jordan National Census of 2004 showed that the town of Ruwaished had a population of 12,098, of whom 55.5% were males and 44.5% females. Only 67.5% of the population were Jordanian citizens. Among the Jordanian citizens, 53.4% were males, while males made up 58% of the foreign nationals .Census 2004

Economy

{{unreferenced section, date=March 2020 Agriculture constitutes the backbone of the town's legal economy. Due to its location in plains where eight wadis converge, there are several dams built in the Ruwaished basin, to efficiently utilize the winter floods in the wadis: *North Ruwaished (Abu Alsafa) Dam: has a capacity of 10.3 million m³. *Burqu Dam: Originally a Roman built dam and still in use, has a capacity of about 4 million m³. *Shaalan Dam: has a capacity of 1 million m³. *Alrisha Alsharqiyya Dam: has a capacity of 2 million m³. *Hadlat Dam: The largest dam with a capacity of 20 million m³. *Raqban Dam *Buwaidha Dam However close to so many borders; for some time now the main economy of the town has been cross-border smuggling.

References

Populated places in Mafraq Governorate