WADI BIN HAMMAD
KARAK 2017
The road into the lesser known parts of Karak
The Middle Eastern desert hides many secrets. Within the depths of the Jordanian valleys, there exists an oasis known to but a few, and it is called Wadi Bin Hammad. The word 'wadi' in Arabic means ‘valley’ and ‘Bin Hammad’ means 'Son of Hammad’.
Wadi Bin Hammad is 144.8 Km from Amman, about a two and a half hour drive, and can be found at the outskirts of the Karak Governorate. To the west of Wadi Bin Hammad lies the more known Wadi Mujib and the Dead Sea.
Wadi Bin Hammad is a beautiful yet underappreciated landscape. Hidden between the monochrome mountains, there lies a wondrous explosion of colors. An entire ecosystem in and of itself, home to many species of animals from owls and foxes to frogs and crabs.
LANDSCAPE FROM ABOVE
At the bottom of this great crevasse, one's journey will ultimately begin on this level.
To get to the oasis, one must travel down the sides of the mountains. There is a winding road that leads down the valley and onward to the beginning of the oasis. Due to its lack of use, it is but a mere dirt road, hardly fitting one vehicle at a time, and terribly dangerous to traverse alone in the dark.
THE WADI
Indeed, it did at times feel surreal
Writer and actress Dana Dajani was going to Karak to help reinvent Wadi Bin Hammad. She had petitioned with the Jordanian government in order to be able to use this land and convert it into an eco-friendly tourism landscape. Surprisingly, it already is a tourist spot, but in such poor condition with a horrid market presence that not many people think it a worthy investment of time and money.
Trash violated the environment viciously, present wherever we looked.
Thankfully, further down the trail we found that the trash was less of an issue. Thanks to the team of people at Wadi Bin Hammad who spent days cleaning up before our arrival. This was one of Dana's main objectives: to clean up the garbage in Wadi Bin Hammad before renovating its energy consumption structure into something self-sustaining.
MYSTERIES, RUMORS & NIGHTMARISH MONSTERS
In regards to photographing Wadi Bin Hammad, there were several rumors about smugglers who had tried to sell to unsuspecting travelers some old books and trinkets, stolen from graves found within the Wadi. Many are claims hard to substantiate. The photograph above is supposedly of a stone landmark called, "The Chair of Tombs", or something similarly ominous; for whoever sits on the part of the rock that is shaped like a chair (the carved out area to the top right of the structure) he/she shall see the entrances to all the tombs in the Wadi, or so the urban legend goes.
Camel Spiders (or sun spiders as some call them) are a subclass of the arachnid, Solifugae species.
Fast and designed to adapt to harsh unforgiving environments; especially the breed found in the desert.
One of the many rumors surrounding this specific spider is that it runs on its hind legs. The facts are that it is indeed fast for its size and weight class, but not on hind legs. That is only an illusion is given during a self-defense pose struck by the spider in order to elicit fear in its attacker.
GOOD BREAKFAST, GOOD COMPANY, GOOD MORNING
There is nothing better than waking up to good company and good food amidst any journey. The host of this daring adventure was a large family who ran the wadi. They were very traditional, very happy and also very humble. Dana Dajani combined forces with the family that runs the Wadi and bring her own marketing style and eco-friendly theme to the lodge in order to turn it into a productive tourism hub for Jordan at scale.
The small yellow boxed net to the right is a device used to capture hornets and wasps. It cradles honey at the bottom and has a one way entrance through the top. The wasp would go in for the honey and would find difficulty leaving. The bees, of course, are unaffected by this.
THROUGH THE VEINS OF JORDAN
TEA TIME
Teat time. You can't ignore tea time.
THE HUMBLING COLORFUL DETAILS
This colorful expression of nature is a combination of moss and algae, along with the strata of the rocks which make wondrous patterns creating the most beautiful and intricate cavern walls.
THE FLATLAND'S & THE FALLEN FARM
At the end of the long journey there awaited a flat landscape where there was a dilapidated farm atop a small hill that caught all our attention.
As we walked up to the fallen farm one of the hosts, an athletic young man who helped keep this tourist site running (especially in the valley) was narrating the story about this place, how it was sadly simply run down and forgotten.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has long been at the center of a very fragile ecosystem, politically and environmentally. The tension within the country has been seemingly steadily rising; since 2014, the Jordanian population has slowly been growing due to many factors, yet it remains that the economic strategy has not adapted in a largely positive way. In 2017 – 2018, Jordan saw the acute rise of bank robberies and gun violence. In 2019, the public school teachers were on the street protesting for better pay. Public perception of outsiders and refugees alike has not helped create coercion between the varied groups of people who all live in Jordan. There seems to be this overarching limited belief that there may not be enough resources in Jordan; not enough work, not enough schools, not enough money, not enough bread, not enough time.
From one standpoint, to capitalize on the tourism industry in Jordan is also to take care of our environment; and taking care of our environment is the same as creating jobs and raising awareness. Careers in environmental sanitation, environmental research and preservation, and even marketing these tourist places to the rest of the world yields the potential to increase Jordan’s revenue; then reinvesting it in the country while ensuring the local community works to keep these locations clean and thriving. It would be far too great a tragedy for the country to look back on its once-thriving opportunity and to collectively experience the pain of regret, having wished something was done earlier.