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ORONTES

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 327 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ORONTES , the See also:

ancient name of the See also:chief Syrian See also:river, also called See also:DRACO, See also:TYPHON and Maus, the last a native See also:form, from whose revival, or continuous employment in native speech, has proceeded the See also:modern name `See also:Asa ("See also:rebel"), which is variously interpreted by See also:Arabs as referring to the stream's impetuosity, to its unproductive channel, or to the fact that it flows away from See also:Mecca. The Orontes rises in the See also:great springs of Labweh on the See also:east See also:side of the Buka'a, or inter-See also:Lebanon See also:district, very near the fountains of the southward-flowing Litani, and it runs due See also:north, parallel with the See also:coast, falling 2000 ft. through a rocky See also:gorge. Leaving this it expands into the See also:Lake of Horns, having been dammed back in antiquity. The valley now widens out into the See also:rich district of See also:Hamah (Hamath-Epiphaneia), below which See also:lie the broad meadow-lands of Ghab, containing the sites of ancient See also:Apamea and See also:Larissa. This central Orontes valley ends at the rocky barrier of Jisr al-Hadid, where the river is diverted to the See also:west, and the See also:plain of See also:Antioch opens. Two large tributaries from the N., the Afrin and Kara Su, here reach it through the former Lake of Antioch, which is now drained through an artificial channel (Nahr al-Kowsit). Passing N. of the modern See also:Antakia (Antioch) the Orontes plunges S.W. into a gorge (compared by the ancients to See also:Tempe), and falls 150 ft. in to m. to the See also:sea just See also:south of the little See also:port of Suedia (anc. See also:Seleucia Pieriae), after a See also:total course of 17o m. Mainly unnavigable and of little use for See also:irrigation, the Orontes derives its See also:historical importance solely from the convenience of its valley for See also:traffic from N. to S. Roads from N. and N.E., See also:con-verging at Antioch, follow the course of the stream up to Horns, where they See also:fork to See also:Damascus and to Coele-See also:Syria and the S.; and along its valley have passed the armies and traffic See also:bound to and from See also:Egypt in all ages. (See ANTIOCH and Holm) (D. G.

End of Article: ORONTES

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