Map of the Roman Empire - Orontes River
Orontes River
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Ancient Orontes River Nahr el-` Asi: river. The Orontes river was the largest river in ancient Syria known in very ancient times as Typhon. It was famous because of the battle of Kadesh being fought by the Orontes River.
Orontes. The largest river of Syria, rising in the Anti-Libanus, flowing past Antioch, and falling into the sea at the foot of Mount Pieria. Its earlier name was Typhon (Strabo, p. 750). - Harry Thurston Peck. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1898.
The Orontes (Ὀρόντης) or ‘Āṣī (العاصي) is a river of Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. It was anciently the chief river of the Levant, also called Draco, Typhon and Axius. The last was a native form, from whose revival, or continuous employment in native speech, has proceeded the modern name ‘Āṣī ("rebel"), because the river flows from the south to the north unlike the rest of the rivers in the region. Mainly unnavigable and of little use for irrigation, the Orontes derives its historical importance solely from the convenience of its valley for traffic from north to south; roads from the north and northeast, converging at Antioch, follow the course of the stream up to Homs where they build the Al-Rastan dam , where they fork to Damascus and to Syria and the south; and along its valley have passed the armies and traffic bound to and from Egypt in all ages. On the Orontes was fought the Battle of Kadesh during the reign of Ramesses II (1279 – 1213 BC). By the Orontes the Battle of Qarqar was fought in 853 BC, when the army of Assyria, led by king Shalmaneser III, encountered an allied army of 12 kings led by Hadadezer of Damascus. In 637 A.D the Battle of Iron bridge was fought between the forces of Rashidun Caliphate and Byzantine Empire near the Iron bridge on the river made by Romans. The Orontes has long been a boundary marker. For the Egyptians it marked the northern extremity of Amurru, east of Phoenicia. - Wikipedia
Orontes River
ORONTES, the most renowned river of Syria, used by the poet Juvenal for the
country, “in Tiberim defluxit Orontes.” (Juv. iii.) Its original name, according
to Strabo, was Typhon (??f??), and his account both of its earlier and later
names, follows his description of Antioch. “The river Orontes flows near the
city. This [2.495] river rising in Coele-Syria, then sinking beneath the earth,
again issues forth, and, passing through the district of Apamea to Antiocheia,
after approaching the city, runs off to the sea towards Seleuceia. It received
its name from one Orontes, who built a bridge over it, having been formerly
called Typhon, from a mythic dragon, who being struck with lightning, fled in
quest of a hiding-place, and after marking out the course of the stream with its
trail, plunged into the earth, from whence forthwith issued the fountain.” He
places its embouchure 40 stadia from Seleuceia (xvi. p. 750). He elsewhere
places the source of the river more definitely near to Libanus and the Paradise,
and the Egyptian wall, by the country of Apamea (p. 756). Its sources have been
visited and described in later times by Mr. Barker in 1835. The river “is called
by the people El-‘A´si, ‘the rebel,’” from its refusal to water the fields
without the compulsion of water-wheels, according to Abulfeda (Tab. Syr. p.
149), but according to Mr. Barker, “from its occasional violence and windings,
during a course of about 200 miles in a northerly direction, passing through
Hems and Hamah, and finally discharging itself into the sea at Suwëidiah near
Antioch.” (Journal of the Geog. Soc. vol. vii. p. 99.) The most remote of these
sources is only a few miles north of Baalbek, near a village called Labweh, “at
the foot of the range of Anti-libanus on the top of a hillock, near which passes
a small stream, which has its source in the adjoining mountains, and after
flowing for several hours through the plain, falls into the basin from which
springs the Orontes.” These fountains are about 12 hours north of Labweh, near
the village Kurmul, where is a remarkable monument, “square, and solid,
terminating above in a pyramid from 60 to 70 feet high. On the four sides
hunting scenes are sculptured in relief, of which the drawing borders on the
grotesque.” (Robinson, Journal of Geog. Soc. vol. xxiv. p. 32.) There can be no
difficulty in connecting this monument with the Paradise or hunting park
mentioned by Strabo near the source of the Orontes, similar, no doubt, in origin
and character, to those with which the narrative of Xenophon abounds, within the
territories of the Persian monarchs. The rise and course of this river and its
various tributaries has been detailed by Col. Chesney (Expedition, vol. i. pp.
394--398), and the extreme beauty of its lower course between Antioch and the
sea has been described in glowing terms by Captains Irby and Mangles.