Wadi Mujib

Wadi Mujib (وادي الموجب) is a sandstone gorge that cuts down from the Jordanian plateau and empties into the Dead Sea more than four hundred metres below sea level. The reserve around it is the lowest-altitude nature reserve in the world and is managed by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature. Its best-known route is the Siq Trail, a self-guided scramble upstream between walls that narrow to a few metres, wading and swimming against the current to a waterfall at the head of the canyon. Because winter rain brings flash floods, the wet trails run only from the first of April to the end of October, and the dry Ibex Trail takes over in the cooler months. Numbers are capped each day and the trailhead sits directly on the Dead Sea highway, so early arrival matters. The gorge also shelters ibex, striped hyena and a surprising range of birds in an otherwise bare landscape.