It includes the

The water tunnel that passes inside the ancient Jordanian city of “Umm Qais”, classified as “the longest in the ancient world”, is considered one of the most prominent historical evidences of the mastery of “water systems” engineering.

The city of “Umm Qais” is located 28 kilometers from the governorate of Irbid in northern Jordan, and bears the name of a village that was approved by the World Tourism Organization, last year, as one of the best 136 villages around the world.

Its historical roots go back to the Greek era as one of the cities of the Roman alliance (it included 10 cities at its inception), while “Umm Qais” was called the city of wise men and philosophers, and it was also famous at that time for many poets.

The distinguished geographical location of this city gave it great importance, as it overlooks the Yarmouk River, the Golan Heights, and Lake Tiberias, which also indicates the advanced thought of its founders.

The area of ​​the archaeological site of the city of “Umm Qais” is about 550 dunums (a dunum is equivalent to 1000 square metres), while its ruins vary between Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic buildings.

The size of the discovery from the ancient city is estimated to not exceed 20 percent, which means that new features will continue to appear periodically, which was proven with the discovery of the passage of the longest archaeological water tunnel in the ancient world inside it, and its opening after qualifying it for visitors in 2023.

** Water tunnel

During a visit to the ancient city, the Anatolian correspondent was briefed on the reality of the water tunnel, which allows an understanding of the city’s water system in the ancient Hellenistic and Roman eras.

In his interview with Anadolu Agency, Musa Malkawi, director of the Bani Kinana Antiquities to which Umm Qais belongs, said: “The length of the water tunnel inside the Umm Qais archaeological site is 420 meters, and it is part of the Decapolis Tunnel (Roman Alliance) or Yarmouk.”

He added, “The tunnel extends from the village of Dael in the Daraa governorate in southern Syria, all the way to the Decapolis cities inside the Jordanian lands, which are 8 out of 10, while some research says that their total number is 13.”

And he added: “Roman cities, especially Umm Qais, were distinguished by many water systems, which contributed to human settlement and development in the region, until it was known as one of the most developed cities. This is due to the availability of water sources in it.”

And he continued, saying: “The water sources are a major part of the tunnel, as evidenced by the site containing pottery and lead pipes that continued until the Islamic era.”

According to Malkawi, scientific publication about this tunnel known to the people of the local community in “Umm Qais” began in 1989, since then “rehabilitation operations began by the Department of Public Antiquities (governmental), specifically in the year 2016-2018, to officially open at the beginning of 2019.”

He stated that the tunnel was referred to “investment from the Ministry of Tourism, while it is currently managed by the Jordanian Heritage Revival Company, which is one of the arms of the King Abdullah II Fund for Development, and aims to employ military retirees from the local community.”

Last April, the tunnel was opened to the tourist movement, according to Malkawi, as the Jordanian visitor pays only one dinar ($1.4), while tourists pay 7 dinars ($9.8) for the ticket, he said.

Regarding the dimensions of the tunnel, Malkawi said, “The tunnel heights vary between 1.65-4 meters, and reach more than that at some points. As for its main entrance, it is 10-15 meters below the surface of the earth.”

As for its internal equipment, a special protection made of iron mesh has been installed to prevent small stones from falling, in addition to providing it with lighting and alarm bells, in addition to rehabilitating smugglers that have been in it since its foundation, according to Malkawi.

And the city of Umm “Qais” or as the people of the region call it colloquially “Umm Qays”, was known in ancient times as “Jadara”, and it is one of the ten Greco-Roman cities (the Ten Cities Pact).

As for its local name “Umm Qais”, it was called decades ago, and it was derived from the Ottoman word “excise”, which means taxes.

Jordan includes, according to official statistics, about 100,000 archaeological and tourist sites, distributed in the various governorates and cities of the Kingdom.

(Anatolia)