AMMAN -- The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) has transformed an old British military field hospital in Azraq into an eco-lodge.
Located in the heart of the eastern desert near the village of South Azraq, the eco-lodge officially opened last week.
The USAID-funded project, which is managed by the RSCN's business arm, Wild Jordan, employs local residents, seeking to develop the local community and help preserve its natural sites.
"The lodge hires members of bedouin, Chechen and Druze tribes, and purchases all of its supplies from the nearby villages," Wild Jordan Director Chris Johnson told The Jordan Times.
He said the kitchen is run by a local Chechen family and the restaurant offers a traditional Chechen menu.
"I don't believe there are any restaurants that serve Chechen food, which is delicious and cooked according to their ancestors' recipes," the director added.
The Azraq area has a rich cultural history due to its strategic location and water resources.
It was used as a station for pilgrims travelling to Mecca and Medina, as well as a military site for many armies, according to the RSCN website.
Today, there are two villages near the reserve. North Azraq is inhabited predominantly by Druze people, who fled Syria during the revolt against the French in the early 1920s, while South Azraq was established at the end of the 19th century by Chechens, a group of Muslims who were fleeing religious persecution in Russia, the website added.
The 16-room guest house features a colonial-style reception and its walls are adorned with black- and white-framed photos dating back to the late 1800s, which were taken by a British photographer who lived with the bedouins, according to Johnson.
The lodge, originally built in 1940, offers its guests a trip into the past with a room dedicated for narrating stories of the eastern desert and Azraq residents.
Also included is a documentary, filmed in the 1970s by a British expedition that was tasked with exploring Azraq to study transforming it into a national park, the director added.
The lodge overlooks a vast mud flat known as Qaal Azraq and is surrounded by rocks and green cactus giving it an authentic desert atmosphere.
Azraq, which means blue in Arabic, also contains several pools, and a seasonally flooded marshland.
A variety of birds flock to the Azraq Wetland Reserve each year, stopping for a short rest along their migration routes, staying for the winter, or breeding within the protected areas of the wetland, according to the RSCN.
Azraq, which is approximately 103km away from Amman, used to attract up to half a million migrating birds at any one time before water pumping began in the 1980s.
By 1993, however, the extraction of water was so great that no surface water remained and its ecological value was virtually destroyed.
With international support, a rescue effort started in 1994 and a significant portion of the wetland has been restored, according to the RSCN.
Many of the birds, for which the oasis was renowned, are coming back and special boardwalks and bird hides have been constructed to enable visitors to see and enjoy them.
The reserve also organises several tours and hiking trails to desert castles, extinct volcanoes and the black basalt landscape of the Hammada.
Johnson said the revenue is used for carrying out work to preserve the area's natural habitat.
Established in 1978, the Azraq Reserve is one of the oldest reserves managed by RSCN.
By Hana Namrouqa
© Jordan Times 2007
