From the British mandate to the Hashemite Kingdom

Abstract

St John Philby was one of the first Europeans after the First World War to visit and describe Ghor as-Safi during the British Mandate period. As head of the Secret Service in Mandatory Palestine, he had top access to the region. The main cobbled-paved road ran from north to south, from the Wadi al-Hasa/Al-Ameri ford curving at Safi village and then directly via Tawahin as-Sukkar. But in spite of these developments, the Ghor as-Safi was still an insecure place even after the establishment of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In the 1970s the Jordanian government established a new township north of the Wadi al-Hasa and relocated the Safi population there. The economic and strategic position of this bay as the Ghor as-Safi port on the Dead Sea during the late Ottoman period and 20th century is mirrored during Roman and Byzantine times when it was named Mahoza and equally served as a harbour for the district of Zoara.