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19-769: Arava or Aravah is the Hebrew name of a section of the Great Rift Valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat in Israel and Jordan. Its Arabic name is Arabah. Arava may also refer to: Aravah The old meaning, which was in use up to around the early 20th century, covered almost the entire length of what today is called the Jordan Rift Valley , running in a north–south orientation between

38-753: A 60,000 ha (150,000-acre) tract of the southern Arava Valley, from Yotvata in the north to the Gulf of Aqaba in the south, including the western (Israeli) half of the valley floor and the ridge of the Eilat Mountains , has also been recognised as an IBA, with additional significant species being Lichtenstein's sandgrouse , grey herons , great white pelicans , slender-billed curlews , marsh sandpipers , black-winged pratincoles , white-eyed gulls , white-winged terns , pallid scops owls , European honey buzzards , Egyptian vultures , eastern imperial eagles , lesser kestrels , lanner falcons , Arabian larks , Sinai rosefinches and cinereous buntings . On

57-727: A population of 6,775. Five major Bedouin tribes comprise eight settlements on the Jordanian side: Al-S'eediyeen ( السعيديين ), Al-Ihewat ( الإحيوات ), Al-Ammareen/Amareen ( العمارين ; see also Palestinian Bedouin ), Al-Rashaideh/Rashaydeh ( الرشايدة ; see also Palestinian Bedouin ), and Al-Azazmeh ( العزازمة ), as well as smaller tribes of the Al-Oseifat ( العصيفات ), Al-Rawajfeh ( الرواجفة ), Al-Manaja'h ( المناجعة ), and Al-Marzaqa ( المرزقة ), among others. The main economic activities for these Arabah residents revolve around herding sheep, agriculture, handicrafts, and serving in

76-583: Is a list of Israeli localities in the Arava, from north to south. They belong to one city council , Eilat, and three regional councils : Tamar (a), Central Arava (b), and Hevel Eilot (c), all part of the Southern District . The total Jordanian population in the region is 103,000, of whom 96,000 live in Aqaba (95,048 as of 2021). In 2004, the Jordanian administrative district of Wadi Araba had

95-509: Is dull yellow, with a brighter moustachial line and throat. In the nominate race of south-west Turkey, the rest of the underparts are grey, but the eastern form E. c. semenowi has yellow underparts. Females are brownish grey above with a whitish throat and yellow only in the moustachial stripe. Young birds have a plain pale belly and streaking on the breast. Like other buntings, the cinereous bunting feeds principally on seeds. It takes insects especially when feeding its young. Its normal clutch

114-628: Is reported in the Hebrew Bible to have had mines in this area. Copper mining at the Ashalim site predates his reign in the 10th century BCE. The Arabah, especially its eastern part, was part of the realm of the Edomites (called "Idumeans" during Hellenistic and Roman times). Later the eastern Arabah became the domain of the Nabateans , the builders of the city of Petra . The existence of

133-486: The Aegean Sea , especially Lesbos . The cinereous bunting breeds on dry stony mountain slopes. The cinereous bunting is a large (16–17 cm), slim bunting with a long, white-cornered tail. The term cinereous describes its colouration. It is less streaked than many buntings and has a thick pale bill. It has a greyish back with only subdued dark markings, and a browner tint to the wings. The adult male's head

152-584: The Jordanian Army . Below is a list of Jordanian population clusters in Wadi Araba: Timna Valley Park is notable for its prehistoric rock carvings, some of the oldest copper mines in the world, and a convoluted cliff called King Solomon's pillars. On the Jordanian side is Wadi Rum , famous among rock climbers, hikers, campers, and lovers of the outdoors. There is the Jordanian copper mining area of Wadi Feynan , including

171-515: The bunting family Emberizidae , a passerine family now separated by most modern authors from the finches , Fringillidae . This species was first described by Christian Ludwig Brehm . It breeds in southern Turkey and southern Iran, and winters around the Red Sea in north-eastern Africa and Yemen. A few isolated populations maintain a foothold within European borders, on Greek islands in

190-863: The caracal ( Caracal caracal ) is found on the valley's savanna areas. A 15,000 ha (37,000-acre) tract of the northern Arava Valley, from the Ne'ot Hakikar Nature Reserve in the north to the Hazeva and Shezaf Nature Reserve in the south, has been recognised as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of both resident and migrating bird species, including sand partridges , garganeys , common cranes , black and white storks , Eurasian spoonbills and bitterns , black-winged stilts , desert tawny owls , lappet-faced vultures , Levant sparrowhawks , sooty falcons , Arabian warblers and babblers , Tristram's starlings , hooded wheatears and Dead Sea sparrows . Furthermore,

209-408: The 10th century BC, encouraged trade and production of copper instead of destroying the region. Tel Aviv University professor Ben-Yosef reported, "Our new findings contradict the view of many archaeologists that the Arava was populated by a loose alliance of tribes, and they're consistent with the biblical story that there was an Edomite kingdom here". The Israel–Jordan Peace Treaty was signed in

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228-523: The Arava on October 26, 1994. The governments of Jordan and Israel are promoting development of the region. There is a plan to bring sea water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea through a canal ( Red–Dead Seas Canal ), which follows along the Arabah. This (long envisioned) project was once an issue of dispute between Jordan and Israel, but it was recently agreed that the project shall be constructed on and by

247-475: The Gulf of Aqaba to the southern shore of the Dead Sea. Topographically, the region is divided into three sections. From the Gulf of Aqaba northward, the land gradually rises over a distance of 77 km (48 mi), and reaches a height of 230 m (750 ft) above sea level, which represents the watershed divide between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea. From this crest, the land slopes gently northward over

266-454: The Jordanian side. The Israeli population of the region is 52,000, of whom 47,500 live in Eilat (52,753 in 2021), and just over 5,000 live in 20 small towns north of Eilat, the largest of which is Yotvata , with a population (as of 2019) of 717 (735 in 2021). Eilat is a city , while all other towns are communal settlements of the kibbutz , moshav and community settlement type. Below

285-621: The biblical Kingdom of Edom was proved by archaeologists led by Erez Ben-Yosef and Tom Levy, using a methodology called the punctuated equilibrium model in 2019. Archaeologists mainly took copper samples from the Timna Valley and Faynan in Jordan's Arava valley dated to 1300–800 BCE. According to the results of the analyses, the researchers thought that Pharaoh Shoshenk I of Egypt (the Biblical " Shishak "), who attacked Jerusalem in

304-451: The eastern (Jordanian) side of the southern Arava Valley is the corresponding, 17,200 ha (43,000-acre), Wadi Araba IBA, about 160 km (99 mi) long by up to 25 km (16 mi) wide. An additional species recorded there is the vulnerable MacQueen's bustard , in very small numbers. In the Bronze and Iron Ages , the Arava was a center of copper production. King Solomon

323-484: The next 74 km (46 mi) to a point 15 km (9.3 mi) south of the Dead Sea. In the last section, the Arabah drops steeply to the Dead Sea, which is 417 m (1,368 ft) below sea level. The Arabah is scenic with colorful cliffs and sharp-topped mountains. The southern Arabah is hot and dry and virtually without rain. There are numerous species of flora and fauna in the Aravah Valley. Notably

342-587: The site of Khirbat en-Nahas , corresponding to the one from Timna Valley in the west. Feynan Ecolodge was opened in Wadi Feynan by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in 2005. 30°25′01″N 35°09′05″E  /  30.41694°N 35.15139°E  / 30.41694; 35.15139 Cinereous bunting The cinereous bunting ( Emberiza cineracea ) is a bird in

361-647: The southern end of the Sea of Galilee and the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba of the Red Sea at Aqaba – Eilat . This included the Jordan River Valley between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea itself, and what today is commonly called the Arava Valley. The contemporary use of the term is restricted to this southern section alone. The Arabah is 166 km (103 mi) in length, from

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