Funny Details about Jordan
How Jordan got its Zigzag Borders: "Winston's Hiccup"
Azraq is situated near the crook of the strange angle formed by Jordan's eastern border with Saudi Arabia, which zigzags here for no apparent reason. Demarcation of this border was the work of Winston Churchill...A story grew up that, after a particularly liquid lunch that day, he had hiccupped while attempting to draw the border and – Winston being Winston – had refused to allow it to be redrawn. Thus the zigzag has been written into history as "Winston's hiccup."
Unfortunately, on closer examination, the truth is rather less engaging: Churchill in fact carefully plotted the zigzag to ensure that the massive Wadi Sirhan – holding a vital communications highway between Damascus and the Arabian interior – ended up excluded from the territory of the new emirate. Jordan's resulting "panhandle"...also had a profound significance: with the French installed dangerously nearby in Syria, it meant that Britain was able to maintain a direct, and friendly, air corridor between the Mediterranean and India at a time...when aircraft were taking a leading role in military and civilian communication.
About the Shaumari Wildlife Reserve, located in Jordan's eastern panhandle
Shaumari was officially designated a reserve in 1975 and was selected as the reception area for returning Arabian oryx to the wild. Oryx had been extinct in Jordan since 1921, but a few had been saved from the wild before the last animal was shot by hunters in Oman in 1973. Four years later, the World Wildlife Fund brought 4 oryx from San Diego Zoo to Shaumari for breeding; unfortunately, it took six months before anyone realized they were all males. The following year 4 females were brought from San Diego, as well as 3 more from a zoo in Qatar in order to mix the genes of the herd, and the first foal was born in 1979.
All of these were taken from The Rough Guide to Jordan, 3rd edition
Azraq is situated near the crook of the strange angle formed by Jordan's eastern border with Saudi Arabia, which zigzags here for no apparent reason. Demarcation of this border was the work of Winston Churchill...A story grew up that, after a particularly liquid lunch that day, he had hiccupped while attempting to draw the border and – Winston being Winston – had refused to allow it to be redrawn. Thus the zigzag has been written into history as "Winston's hiccup."
Unfortunately, on closer examination, the truth is rather less engaging: Churchill in fact carefully plotted the zigzag to ensure that the massive Wadi Sirhan – holding a vital communications highway between Damascus and the Arabian interior – ended up excluded from the territory of the new emirate. Jordan's resulting "panhandle"...also had a profound significance: with the French installed dangerously nearby in Syria, it meant that Britain was able to maintain a direct, and friendly, air corridor between the Mediterranean and India at a time...when aircraft were taking a leading role in military and civilian communication.
About the Shaumari Wildlife Reserve, located in Jordan's eastern panhandle
Shaumari was officially designated a reserve in 1975 and was selected as the reception area for returning Arabian oryx to the wild. Oryx had been extinct in Jordan since 1921, but a few had been saved from the wild before the last animal was shot by hunters in Oman in 1973. Four years later, the World Wildlife Fund brought 4 oryx from San Diego Zoo to Shaumari for breeding; unfortunately, it took six months before anyone realized they were all males. The following year 4 females were brought from San Diego, as well as 3 more from a zoo in Qatar in order to mix the genes of the herd, and the first foal was born in 1979.
All of these were taken from The Rough Guide to Jordan, 3rd edition
