Ash-Shunah al-Janubiyah

Ash-Shunah al-Janubiyah (Arabic: الشونة الجنوبية), also Shoonah Janoobiyah, South Shuna or Southern Shouneh, etc.,^[2] is a populated place in Balqa Governorate, Jordan, in the eastern Jordan Valley, not far from the place where the Jordan flows into the Dead Sea. The town stretches along the Jordan Valley Highway (HW 65) north of the intersection with Route 437 (King Hussein Bridge Road), east of the Allenby (or King Hussein) Bridge and border crossing. It is the seat of the Ash-Shunah al-Janubiyah District [ar].

Ash-Shunah al-Janubiyah الشونة الجنوبية
Town
Ash-Shunah al-Janubiyah
Coordinates: 31.9148°N 35.6133°E / 31.9148; 35.6133
Country	Jordan
Population  (2015[1])
• Total	2,887

South Shuna is the location of the cultural heritage site known as Shunet Nimrin / Shunat Nimrin.^[2] The Tell Nimrin archaeological site is within South Shuna.^[3][4]

There is a Monument to the Unknown Soldier [ar] to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Karameh.

Landscape from Ash-Shunah al-Janubiyah District

Etymology

See also: Al-Shunah al-Shamalyah § Etymology

Shunah means "barn",^[5] janub is Arabic for "south",^[6] and al-janubiyah means "southern". Therefore, Ash-Shunah al-Janubiyah is often rendered in English as "South Shuna",^[7] or "Southern Shuna"^[8] with another Shunah town at the opposite, northern end of the Jordan Valley being known as North Shuna.^[7]

Shunah is also spelled Shuneh and Shuna.^[2] The article al undergoes assimilation to the following consonant in specific cases, when al is sounded ash, also spelled esh,^[9] al-Shunah becoming ash-Shunah/esh-Shuneh. For convenience, the definite article at the beginning of place-names may be dropped, yielding here simply Shunah al-Janubiyah.^[2]

South Shuna is also historically known as Shunat Nimrin.^[2] Nimrin is the name of nearby Tell Nimrin and the lower section of a wadi called Wadi Nimrin downstream from Tell Nimrin and Wadi Shu'eib upstream from the tell.

See also

• Al-Shunah al-Shamalyah (North Shuna), town at the northern end of Jordan's Jordan Valley

References

1. 2015 Jordan Census [ar], The Population of the Kingdom by Administrative Divisions, According to the General Census of Population and Housing result 2015 (search for "Shoonah Janoobiyah")
2. United States Board on Geographic Names (1990). Gazetteer of Jordan: Names Approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names (2 ed.). Washington, D.C.: Defense Mapping Agency. p. 273. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
3. Environmental and Social Considerations in Detailed Planning Survey. The North Shuna-South Shuna Road Project (NSSRP) (Japan International Cooperation Agency Archive)
4. Ahrens, Alexander. "From the Jordan Valley Lowlands to the Transjordanian Highlands: Preliminary Report of the Wadi Shuʿayb Archaeological Survey Project 2016", in: Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 59 (2018), pp. 631-648. Via academia.edu, accessed 22 Jan 2022.
5. Conder, C. R. (1889). The Survey of Eastern Palestine. Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, Archaeology, etc (PDF). London: The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. pp. 216, 218. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
6. Rajki, András (2005). Arabic Dictionary with Etymologies. Accessed 5 September 2018.
7. The North Shuna-South Shuna Road Project, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Accessed 27 Jan 2022.
8. Southern Shuna to Dead Sea Morning Ride, Jordan Tourism Board (JTB). Accessed 27 Jan 2022.
9. Ritter, Robert M. (2002). The Oxford Guide to Style (PDF). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 252–256. ISBN 0-19-869175-0. Retrieved 21 January 2022. (See Hart's Rules).