Tafilah Governorate
Tafilah's Edomite heartland yields phosphate and copper while Dana Biosphere and Afra Hot Springs offer untapped tourism, receiving JD25M water investment (2025-2027).
Tafilah occupies the ancient heartland of Edom, the biblical kingdom whose copper and manganese deposits remain economically significant today—reserves estimated at one million tons of copper and half a million tons of manganese, with phosphate mining among the governorate's primary industries. This mineral wealth shapes economic geography differently than the tourism that defines northern governorates or the refugee absorption that transformed Mafraq.
The Dana Biosphere Reserve preserves landscapes that development elsewhere eliminated, the October 2025 JD25 million water infrastructure initiative addressing supply constraints that limit both settlement and agriculture. Afra Hot Springs' mineral waters (45-48°C from 15 different sources) provide tourism potential that remains undeveloped compared to Dead Sea resorts.
Population of approximately 115,000 across 2,209 km² reflects the sparse settlement that southern Jordan's aridity produces. Prime Minister Hassan's 2025 emphasis on Tafilah's 'untapped tourism potential' acknowledges that mineral extraction alone cannot provide the employment that keeps youth in the governorate. Whether investment in water infrastructure and tourism development can transform Tafilah's economic prospects—or whether the governorate continues losing population to Amman and the north—tests Jordan's capacity for geographic rebalancing.