عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Jordan Completes Renovation of Longest Roman Water Tunnel

A Jordanian leads a caravan of camels in Jordan's ancient city of Petra AFP
A Jordanian leads a caravan of camels in Jordan's ancient city of Petra AFP
TT
TT

Jordan Completes Renovation of Longest Roman Water Tunnel

A Jordanian leads a caravan of camels in Jordan's ancient city of Petra AFP
A Jordanian leads a caravan of camels in Jordan's ancient city of Petra AFP

The US Embassy in Amman announced the completion of the project to renovate and conserve the Roman tunnel in the Umm Qais northern Jordan, with a $160,000 fund from the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP).

Through its partnership with the Faculty of Archeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University, the US Embassy has managed to restore the valuable historic site so that Jordanians, visitors, and tourists can enjoy its beautiful ancient architecture. The Yarmouk University, in cooperation with the US Embassy, ​​hosted a ceremony to announce the official opening of the site.

The Roman tunnel in Umm Qais is the longest Roman aqueduct known in the world, extending to 170 km from Jordan to Syria, which is nine times longer than the second longest water tunnel in Italy.

The AFCP grant had been allocated between 2015 and 2018. It enabled the Department of Conservation and Management of Heritage Resources at Yarmouk University to rehabilitate and promote the tunnel to host visitors and boost tourism in the site. The Ambassadors Fund for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage supports the protection of sites and cultural features around the world. Since 2001, Jordan has received more than $2 million grants to finance 18 projects to preserve cultural heritage in places such as Petra, Al-Baydha, Umm Al-Jimal, Abila, the Jordan Valley and the heart of the country.

US Chargé d’Affaires Jim Barnhart said the United States is proud to stand as a partner in preserving and protecting Jordan’s heritage sites, noting that tourism remains one of the foundations of Jordan’s economy. In 2016, the Faculty of Archeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University launched the project aiming to maintain and renovate the water tunnel at the site of Umm Qais, northern Jordan, and one of the ten commercial cities of the Decapolis. Dr. Ziad Al Saad, the university's vice president for academic affairs, explained that this tunnel is the tallest of its kind in the ancient world.

It is a network of underground 170 km long tunnels, which was inaugurated by the Roman engineers in 90 AD to transport drinking water from an ancient lake in Syria to Umm Qais in northern Jordan. The AFCP project was dedicated to preserve and rehabilitate 2-3 kilometers of the tunnel located below the archaeological site on Umm Qais hill.

Saad explained that the importance of the project is emphasized in preserving and maintaining the cultural value of this water engineering system. It contributes to enhancing the cultural and historical identity of Umm Qais, and boosting the role of tourism and archeology in achieving sustainable development of the community.

He added that the project's executive procedures included the architectural documentation of the tunnel through modern techniques such as photogrammetry, 3D laser survey and the geographic information system (GIS), as well as the documentation of the damages in caused by environmental factors and the previous maintenance procedures using cement at the entrance to the tunnel.

The second phase of the project saw the maintenance and restoration works with minimal intervention in accordance with international standards for the restoration of historic sites.

These procedures had been accompanied by the renovation of infrastructure and mechanics that enable people to move in the tunnel, in order to offer a unique experience that takes visitors to the past and introduce them to the creativity of those who built this tunnel.

Saad stressed that the completion of this project will provide the required conditions to qualify Umm Qais tunnel to be added on the World Heritage List, which will give the site an added value and enhanced protection.

It will also pave the road for the implementation of future works to maintain the remaining parts of the tunnel. This responsibility requires more cooperation and coordination between the concerned local, regional and global institutions. Saad noted that the project remains subject to stability in the area of ​​the historic triangle in the north.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

Heavy Rains Drench Southern California, Spawn Flash Flooding, Mud Flows

A car sits buried in mud after flooding Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Wrightwood, Calif. (AP)
A car sits buried in mud after flooding Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Wrightwood, Calif. (AP)
TT
TT

Heavy Rains Drench Southern California, Spawn Flash Flooding, Mud Flows

A car sits buried in mud after flooding Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Wrightwood, Calif. (AP)
A car sits buried in mud after flooding Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Wrightwood, Calif. (AP)

Torrential rains unleashed widespread flash flooding and mud flows across Southern California on Wednesday, as authorities warned motorists to stay off roads while urging residents in flood zones to evacuate or shelter in place.

In the rain-soaked mountain resort of Wrightwood, east of Los Angeles, emergency crews spent much of the day answering dozens of rescue calls and pulling drivers to safety from submerged vehicles, San Bernardino County Fire Department spokesperson Christopher Prater said.

No casualties were reported as ‌of Wednesday night, according ‌to Prater.

Aerial video footage posted online by the fire department ‌showed ⁠rivers of ‌mud coursing through inundated cabin neighborhoods.

Downpours measuring an inch (2.54 cm) or more of rain an hour in some areas were spawned by the region's latest atmospheric storm, a vast airborne current of dense moisture siphoned from the Pacific and swept inland over the greater Los Angeles area.

The Christmas Eve storm was expected to persist into Friday, posing unsafe driving conditions during what would normally be a busy holiday travel period, according to the US National Weather Service.

"Life-threatening" storm conditions ⁠were expected to persist through Christmas Day over Southern California, "where widespread flash flooding is underway," the weather service said.

A flash-flood ‌warning was posted across much of Los Angeles County until ‍6 p.m. PST, urging motorists: "Do not ‍attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area, subject to flooding or under ‍an evacuation order."

Los Angeles city officials urged residents to heed evacuation orders issued for about 130 homes considered especially vulnerable to mudslides and debris flows in areas where last year's wildfires ravaged the community of Pacific Palisades.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department issued an evacuation warning for Wrightwood earlier in the day, but elevated the advisory to a shelter-in-place order as flood conditions worsened. The Angeles Crest Highway, a major traffic route through the San ⁠Gabriel Mountains, was closed in two stretches due to flooding

Wednesday's heavy rainfall was accompanied by strong, gusty winds that officials said were downing trees and power lines. In upper elevations of the Sierra mountains, the storm was expected to dump heavy snow.

NWS meteorologist Ariel Cohen said 4 to 8 inches of rain had fallen in some foothill areas by 9 a.m. PST, and the Los Angeles City News Service reported numerous rockslides in the mountains. Forecasts called for more than a foot (30.48 cm) of rain falling over some lower-terrain mountain areas by week's end.

Forecasters even issued a rare tornado warning for a small portion of east-central Los Angeles County due to heavy thunderstorm activity over the community of Alhambra.

As of Wednesday night, ‌rainfall over the region had subsided, but a second wave of the storm system was due to hit on Thursday, forecasters said.

Varieties

China's LandSpace Hopes to Complete Rocket Recovery in Mid-2026

Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
TT
TT

China's LandSpace Hopes to Complete Rocket Recovery in Mid-2026

Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS

Chinese rocket developer LandSpace plans to successfully recover a reusable booster in mid-2026, a company executive said in an interview, underscoring the Beijing-based firm's ambition to become China's answer to SpaceX.

The ability to return, recover, and reuse a rocket's engine-packed first stage, or booster, after launch is crucial to reducing costs and making it easier for countries to send satellites into orbit, and to turn space exploration into a commercially viable business similar to civil aviation, Reuters reported.

Earlier this month, privately-owned LandSpace ‌became the first ‌Chinese entity to conduct a full reusable rocket ‌test, when ⁠Zhuque-3 ​blasted off ‌from a remote area in northwest China for its maiden flight, drawing comparisons to US aerospace giant SpaceX.

SECOND ATTEMPT PLANNED

While LandSpace failed to complete the crucial final step of landing and recovering the rocket's engine-packed booster, it hopes to clear this challenge in mid-2026 with a second test flight, Zhuque-3 deputy chief designer Dong Kai told Chinese podcast Tech Early Know in an interview published on Tuesday.

"If the second flight's recovery (stage) succeeds, we ⁠plan that on the fourth flight we will use a reused first stage to launch," Dong said.

So far, ‌the only company that has mastered reusable rocket technology is ‍SpaceX, founded by the world's richest ‍person Elon Musk. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launches around 150 times a year, or roughly ‍three times per week, with its booster reused dozens of times if necessary.

Musk said in October that LandSpace's Zhuque-3 design could allow it to beat the Falcon 9, but went on to state that the Chinese challenger's launch cadence would take more than five years to ​reach that of SpaceX's workhorse model, at which point the US firm would have transitioned to its heavier, new-generation model Starship and "doing over ⁠100 times the annual payload to orbit of Falcon".

INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING

LandSpace's Dong said that, while the company was already building an engine for a future Starship-like model, he was not optimistic that in five years Falcon 9's work rate could be surpassed, noting that all rocket models in China combined this year totalled only around 100 launches.

"It's very difficult for a single company to reach that kind of frequency. It requires the support of an entire ecosystem," Dong said, adding that LandSpace had 10 launches planned next year for all its models.

Other executives have previously said that the financial cost of a high-frequency testing and launch regimen was crucial to SpaceX's success, and that LandSpace's only ‌hope of amassing enough funds to sustain a similar programme would be by tapping China's capital markets, pointing to plans for an initial public offering next year.

 

 

Varieties

Russia Plans a Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon within a Decade

November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)
November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)
TT
TT

Russia Plans a Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon within a Decade

November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)
November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)

Russia plans to put ​a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade to supply its lunar space program and a joint Russian-Chinese research station as major powers rush to explore the earth's only natural satellite.

Ever since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space in 1961, Russia has prided itself as ‌a leading power in ‌space exploration, but in recent ‌decades ⁠it ​has fallen ‌behind the United States and increasingly China.

Russia's ambitions suffered a massive blow in August 2023 when its unmanned Luna-25 mission smashed into the surface of the moon while attempting to land, and Elon Musk has revolutionized the launch of space vehicles - once a Russian specialty.

Russia's state space corporation, Roscosmos, ⁠said in a statement that it planned to build a lunar power ‌plant by 2036 and signed a contract ‍with the Lavochkin Association ‍aerospace company to do it.

Roscosmos said the purpose of ‍the plant was to power Russia's lunar program, including rovers, an observatory and the infrastructure of the joint Russian-Chinese International Lunar Research Station.

"The project is an important step towards the creation of ​a permanently functioning scientific lunar station and the transition from one-time missions to a long-term lunar exploration program," ⁠Roscosmos said.

Roscosmos did not say explicitly that the plant would be nuclear but it said the participants included Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading nuclear research institute.

The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, said in June that one of the corporation's aims was to put a nuclear power plant on the moon and to explore Venus, known as earth's "sister" planet.

The moon, which is 384,400 km (238,855 miles) from our planet, moderates the earth's wobble ‌on its axis, which ensures a more stable climate. It also causes tides in the world's oceans.