Wikimapia is a multilingual open-content collaborative map, where anyone can create place tags and share their knowledge.

Siq

Jordan / Maan / Wadi Musa / Al Siq
 canyon / gorge, interesting place
Siq is the entrance to the ancient city of Petra in south Jordan. It is a dark and narrow gorge (in places only 3-4 metres wide) that leads to the inside of Petra. It is a natural geological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks, and not by erosion, and serving as a waterway flowing into Wadi Musa. At the end of the narrow gorge stands Petra's most elaborate ruin, Al Khazneh (The Treasury) hewn directly out of the sandstone cliff.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siq
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   30°19'19"N   35°27'23"E

Comments

  • ayaat (guest)
    The people of Thamud are a tribe mentioned in the Qur'an about whom a substantial amount is known. Historical sources confirm that a people known as the Thamud existed many years ago. It is believed that the people of al-Hijr referred to in the Qur'an are actually the same people as Thamud, because another name for Thamud is "Ashab al-Hijr." That being the case, the word "Thamud" may be the name of a people and al-Hijr one of the cities they founded. In fact, this is exactly what is suggested by the descriptions of the Greek geographer Pliny, who wrote that Thamud lived in places called Domotha and Hegra, the present-day city of Hijr.236 The oldest known historical source to refer to Thamud are the Babylonian state records. They relate the details of the victory of King Sargon II of Babylon over that people in the 8th century B.C. Sargon defeated them in a war in Northern Arabia. The Greeks also mention this people and Aristotle, Ptolemy and Pliny refer to them as the "Thamudaei" i.e. "Thamud."237 All trace of them vanished before the time of our Prophet (saas) in around 400-600. MOOR INFO. http://ayaat.wordpress.com/
  • grecodan
    It is inaccurate to state the siq is formed by a split in the sandstone and NOT erosion. That erosion has shaped this chasm is obvious to anyone who has walked through it. Water pouring through the natural crack rounded it, smoothed it, carved it into the many dramatic curving cliffs you see as you pass through. It ORIGINATED from a cleft in the bedrock, but that crack was sculpted into the form you see now by water erosion over many ages.
  •  198 km
  •  218 km
  •  222 km
  •  254 km
  •  378 km
  •  665 km
  •  717 km
  •  744 km
  •  925 km
  •  978 km
This article was last modified 5 years ago