Barada - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Barada is the main river of Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, the capital city of Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

. It flows through the spring of `Ayn Fijah (عين فيجة), about 27 km north west of Damascus in the Anti-Lebanon

Anti-Lebanon

The Anti-Lebanon mountains is the Western name for the Eastern Lebanon Mountain Range , which are a southwest-northeast-trending mountain range between Syria and Lebanon. Its Western name comes from the Greek word for ‘opposite’. The majority of the mountain range lies in Syria. The border between...

Mountains, but its source is Lake Barada, located at about 8 km from Zabadani

Zabadani

Zabadani is a city in southwestern Syria in the Rif Dimashq Governorate, close to the border with Lebanon. It is located in the center of a green valley surrounded by high mountains at an elevation of around 1,100 m....

. The Barada descends through a steep, narrow gorge named "Rabwe" before it arrives at Damascus, where it divides into seven branches that irrigate the oasis

Oasis

In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...

of Ghouta

Ghouta

Ghouta , is a collection of farms in Rif Dimashq close to the eastern part of Damascus, Syria.The Damascus Ghouta is a green agricultural belt surrounding the city of Damascus in the South and East. Separating the city from the Syrian Steppe, it has provided its inhabitants with a variety of...

(الغوطة). The 'Barada' name is thought to derive from 'barid', i.e. 'cold'. The ancient Greek name means 'golden stream'.

Throughout the arid plateau region east of Damascus, oases, streams, and a few interior rivers that empty into swamps and small lakes provide water for local irrigation. Most important of these is the Barada, a river that rises in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and disappears into the desert. The Barada creates the Al Ghutah Oasis

Ghouta

, site of Damascus. This verdant area, some 370 square kilometers, has enabled Damascus to prosper since ancient times. From the mid-1980s onwards, the size of Al Ghutah was gradually being eroded as suburban housing and light industry from Damascus encroached on the oasis.

The river has suffered from severe drought in the last decades, mainly due to the lower rainfall rates and the large increase in the population in the region. It also suffers from serious pollution problems, especially in the summer, where there is almost no flow and little water in the basin.

Biblical mention

Barada is identified as Abana (or Amanah, classical Chrysorrhoas) which is the more important of the two rivers of Damascus, Syria and was mentioned in the Book of Kings
Books of Kings
The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...

(2 Kings 5:12). As the Barada rises in the Anti-Libanus, and escapes from the mountains through a narrow gorge, its waters spread out fan-like, in canals or rivers, the name of one of which, the Banias

Banias

Banias is an archaeological site by the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi, located at the foot of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights...

river, retains a trace of Abana.

John MacGregor

John MacGregor (sportsman)

John MacGregor , nicknamed Rob Roy after a renowned relative, was a Scottish explorer, travel writer and philanthropist. He is generally credited with the development of the first sailing canoes and with popularising canoeing as a middle class sport in Europe and the United States...

, who gives an interesting description of them in his book Rob Roy on the Jordan, affirmed that as a work of hydraulic engineering

Hydraulic engineering

This article is about civil engineering. For the mechanical engineering discipline see Hydraulic machineryHydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive...

, the system and construction of the canals, by which the Abana and Pharpar were used for irrigation, might be considered as one of the most complete and extensive in the world. In the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

, Naaman

Naaman

Naaman was a commander of the armies of Ben-Hadad II in the time of Joram, king of Israel. He is mentioned in of the Tanakh. According to the narrative, he was afflicted with tzaraath...

exclaims that the Abana and Pharpar are greater than all the waters of Israel

Land of Israel

The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...

Biblical mention

See also