The Dam

The dam you see is quite modern; it was built in 1964 to prevent a recurrence of a tragic accident in which some tourists were killed by a burst flood which swept down through the Siq, but it was built on the remains of a Nabataean dam. At their time, Nabataeans prevented floods from destroying the city through a damming system that diverted the water along the left hand cliff into a channel then into an ancient tunnel called "El-Muthlim tunnel". They also lined the Siq with water channels. This system of channels, tunnels and dams controlled water flow and erosion, and provided irrigation water to the settlement.