Wadi Musa (, literally "Valley of Musa (AS)) is a town located in the Ma'an Governorate in southern

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 ...

. It is the administrative center of the Petra Department and the nearest town to the archaeological site of

Petra Petra (; "Rock"), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu (Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: or , *''Raqēmō''), is an ancient city and archaeological site in southern Jordan. Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit systems, P ...

, being only 3.5 km (2.2 miles) away. Most of the locals belong to the Liyathnah tribe. It hosts many hotels and restaurants for tourists, and the important B'doul settlement of Umm Seyhoun, created after the community's forced displacement in 1985, is approximately from the town.

Etymology

''Wadi Musa'' means "Valley of Moses" in Arabic. It is said that

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

passed through the valley and struck water from the rock for his followers at the site of ''Ain Musa'' ("Moses Spring" or "Moses' Well"). The Nabateans built channels that carried water from this spring to the city of Petra. Wadi Musa was also nicknamed the "Guardian of Petra". The

Tomb of Aaron A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

, the traditional burial site of biblical

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

, the brother of Moses, is on nearby Jebel Harun, a strong candidate for biblical

Mount Hor Mount Hor (Hebrew: , romanized: ''Hōr hāHār'') is the name given in the Hebrew Bible to two distinct mountains. One borders the land of Edom in the area south of the Dead Sea, and the other is by the Mediterranean Sea at the Northern border ...

History

During the Crusader period, the area was part of the Lordship of Oultrejordain and was defended by the castle, li Vaux Moysi. During the

Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ), also known as the Great Arab Revolt ( ), was an armed uprising by the Hashemite-led Arabs of the Hejaz against the Ottoman Empire amidst the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On the basis of the McMahon–Hussein Co ...

, Turkish forces under the command of Mehmed Djemal Pasha attacked Wadi Musa on 21 Oct. 1917. The Ottoman forces were defeated by forces under the command of Mawlud Mukhlis, Faisal's '' aide-de-camp''. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 654 inhabitants in Wadi Musa.

Climate

In Wadi Musa, there is a semi-arid climate. Most rain falls in the winter. The Köppen-Geiger climate classification is BSk. The average annual temperature in Wadi Musa is . About of precipitation falls annually.

Demographics

As of 2009, Wadi Musa's population was 17,085, with a male-to-female sex ratio of 52.1 to 47.9 (8,901 males and 8,184 females), making it the most populous settlement of the Petra Department. As of the 2004 census, Petra Department, which includes Wadi Musa and 18 other villages, had a population of 23,840 inhabitants. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of the town was 2.3 people per

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

, or , and the population growth rate was 3.2%. Most of the town's population belongs to the Liyathnah tribe, whose members play leading roles in the region's economy and politics and dominate the local tourism industry since the 20th century. Almost the entire population is

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Economy

The town is about from

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 ...

, Jordan's capital, and north of the port city of

Aqaba Aqaba ( , ; , ) 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 center of the Aqaba Governorate. The city had a population of 148, ...

. With more than 50 hotels and many tourist restaurants, its economy is almost entirely tied to tourism. The campus of the College of Archaeology, Tourism & Hotel Management of Al-Hussein Bin Talal University is located in Wadi Musa.

Gallery

File:Wadi Musa Valley.jpg, Wadi Musa Valley File:Petra Visitors Center.jpg, Petra Visitors Center File:Wadi Musa, město II.jpg, Townscape File:Wadi Musa houses.jpg, Houses in Wadi Musa File:Wadi_Musa_at_dusk_(12294023723).jpg, Wadi Musa at dusk Wadi Musa-Mosesquelle-02-aussen-2010-gje.jpg, Moses source Wadi Musa-Panoramahotel-02-2010-gje.jpg, Hotel Wadi Musa-Panoramahotel-22-Landschaft-2010-gje.jpg, Mountains

References

Bibliography

External links

Photos of Wadi Musa
at the American Center of Research
Photos of Wadi Musa
at the

Manar al-Athar Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Em ...

photo archive {{Authority control Populated places in Ma'an Governorate

Musa Musa may refer to: Places *Mūša, a river in Lithuania and Latvia * Musa, Azerbaijan, a village in Yardymli Rayon * Musa, Iran, a village in Ilam province, Iran * Musa, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Iran * Musa Kalayeh, Gilan province, Iran * Abu M ...