At around 120 square miles, the Dana Biosphere Reserve is the largest nature reserve in Jordan. It’s located just off the King’s Highway (or the Dead Sea-Aqaba Highway, depending on where you enter) between the Dead Sea and Petra.
On the eastern edge, the 15th-century village of Dana commands the reserve’s high point at almost 5000 feet. The low point is more than 160 ft below sea level, at Wadi Araba.
The reserve is cut through with deep sheltered canyons and trails for all levels of hikers. The convergence of 4 biogeographical zones means a range of environments, from lush highlands and scrubby slopes to parched wadi beds, supporting a rich biodiversity, with some 800 plant and 450 animal species endemic to Europe, Asia and Africa.
In its management of the reserve, the NGO Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) strives to balance environmental conservation with the economic needs of the local Bedouin tribes. In 2005, the RSCN built the Feynan Ecolodge in Feynan Wadi, where copper mining had been the main industry for over 3 thousand years.
The remaining copper is deep and would require environmentally devastating blasting to reach. The lodge, and tourism in general, provides a sustainable economic alternative to copper mining.
The Rummana campground at the other end of the reserve near Dana Village offers tent camping with jaw-dropping views.