As the chief river of the northernLevant, the Orontes has been the site of many major battles including theBattle of Kadesh (13th century BCE), and water distribution remains a controversial issue between the countries in the region.[2] Among the most important cities on the river areHoms,Hama,Jisr al-Shughur, andAntakya (the ancientAntioch, which was also known as "Antioch on the Orontes").
In the 9th century BCE, the ancientAssyrians referred to the river asArantu, and the nearbyEgyptians called itAraunti.[3] The etymology of the name is unknown,[3] yet some sources indicate that it might be derived fromArnt which means "lioness" inSyriac languages;[a] others called itAlimas, a "water goddess" inAramaic.[4]Arantu gradually became "Orontes" in Greek.
In the Greek epic poemDionysiaca (circa 400 CE), the river is said to have been named after Orontes, an Indian military leader who killed himself and fell into the river after losing to Dionysus in single combat.[5] According to the Greek geographerStrabo (inGeographica, circa 20 CE), the river was originally namedTyphon, because it was said thatZeus had struck the dragon Typhon down from the sky with thunder, and the river had formed where Typhon's body had fallen;[6] however, the river was later renamed Orontes when a man named Orontes built a bridge on it.[6][b]
Macedonian settlers inApamea named it theAxius, after a Macedonian river god. The Arabic nameالعاصي (al-‘Āṣī) is derived from the ancientAxius. The word coincidentally means "insubordinate" in Arabic, whichfolk etymology ascribes to the fact that the river flows from the south to the north unlike the rest of the rivers in the region.[9][10]
The part of the river flowing fromLake Homs toHoms is known asal-Mimas,[11][12] after the sanctuary of Deir Mimas situated there in honor ofSaint Mamas.[13]
Map of the Orontes. White lines are country borders, river names are italic on a blue background, current cities or major towns on white backgrounds, other places of significance on orange backgrounds.
The Orontes rises in the springs nearLabweh in Lebanon on the east side of theBeqaa Valley (in theBeqaa Governorate) betweenMount Lebanon on the west and theAnti-Lebanon Mountains on the east, very near the source of the southward-flowingLitani, and runs north, falling 600 metres (2,000 ft) through a gorge to leave the valley.[1] TheAin ez Zarqa is one such major spring.[14] Other major springs are Al Ghab, Al Rouj, and Al-Azraq.[1] The river'sdrainage basin within Lebanon is 1,930 km2 (750 sq mi); the country's second largest behind Litani.[15]
Leaving this gorge, it expands into theLake of Homs (an artificial lake created by aRoman-era dam, also known as Qattinah lake) in theHoms Governorate ofSyria and through the city ofHoms (or Ḥimṣ). Next it flows through theHama Governorate and its capital ofHamah (Hamaih-Epiphaneia), and the ancient site of Larissa (Shaizar). This is where the river enters theGhab plain.Further downstream, on the eastern edge of the Ghab, is located the ancient city ofApamea.[1] To the west is theCoastal Mountain Range. The last Syrian governorate it goes through isIdlib and the city ofJisr al-Shughur. This section ends at the rocky barrier ofJisr al-Hadid, where the river turns west into the plain ofAntioch (Amik Valley) in theHatay Province of Turkey.[1]
Two major tributaries, the southward-flowingAfrin River on the west and theKarasu on the east, join the Orontes through the formerLake Amik via an artificial channel (Nahr al-Kowsit). Passing north ofAntakya (ancient Antioch), the Orontes dives southwest into a gorge (compared by the ancients toTempe), and falls 50 metres (160 ft) in 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) to the sea just south ofSamandağ (former Suedia, in antiquity Seleucia Pieria), after a total course of 450 kilometres (280 mi).[1]
The Orontes is not easily navigable and the valley derives its historical importance as a road for north–south traffic; from Antioch south toHoms and thence toDamascus viaal-Nabek.[1] The Orontes has long been a boundary marker. For the Ancient Egyptians it marked the northern extremity ofAmurru, east of Phoenicia. On the Orontes was fought the majorBattle of Kadesh (circa 1274 BCE) between the Egyptian army ofRamesses II from the south and the Hittite army ofMuwatalli II from the north. The river was also the site of theBattle of Qarqar fought in 853 BCE, when the army ofAssyria, led by kingShalmaneser III, encountered an allied army of 12 kings led byHadadezer ofDamascus.
Bronze copy, 1st or 2nd century CE, fromTartus ofEutychides'Tyche of Antioch, 4th century BCE,Louvre Museum; at the goddess' feet a male swimmer personifying the Orontes is represented.
Seleucid cities founded on the Orontes includedSeleucia ad Belum,Antigonia, andAntioch. Several Hellenistic artefacts feature theTyche of Antioch with a male swimmer personifying the Orontes at her feet.
In 64 BCEPompey took the Orontes river valley and made it part of the new Roman province ofSyria with Antioch as its capital.Lake Homs Dam was built by the Roman emperorDiocletian in 290 CE.[16] In addition to Lake Homs, further Roman dams and dykes would be built along the Orontes river around Apamea, to better irrigate the Ghab plain. In 198 CE the province was split with the lower Orontes in the new province ofCoele Syria and the upper Orontes from Emesa (modern day Homs) south inSyria Phoenice. Emesa was later raised to co-capital of the latter.
In 2025, the river basin faced crisis as rainfall dropped sharply and groundwater feeding the Orontes collapsed, the riverbed dried out in parts of northwestern Syria, thousands of fish died, and agricultural land was left fallow.[18][19]
The French writerMaurice Barrès purportedly transcribed inUn jardin sur l'Oronte (1922) a story that an Irish archaeologist had translated for him from a manuscript one evening in June 1914 at acafé in Hama by the Orontes.
^Fitchett, Joseph; Deford, McAdams (1973)."A River Called Rebel".Aramco World (May/June):12–21. Archived fromthe original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved15 February 2015.
^Scheffel, Richard L.; Wernet, Susan J., eds. (1980).Natural Wonders of the World. United States of America: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. p. 34.ISBN0-89577-087-3.
Pop-up map of the Orontes River available at:Alhajji, E.; Ismail, I.M. (2011). "Trace elements concentration in sediments of Orontes River using PIXE technique".Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms.269 (16):1818–1821.doi:10.1016/j.nimb.2011.05.006.
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