نهر العاصي

نهر العاصي Orontes
نواعير حماة على نهر العاصي في سوريا
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.
الموقع
البلد	لبنان, سوريا, تركيا
المدن	حمص, حماة, جسر الشغور، أنطاكية
السمات الطبيعية
المنبع	منابع اللبوة وعين الزرقا، نبع الزراعة
⁃ الموقع	سهل البقاع, لبنان
⁃ الإحداثيات	34°11′49″N 36°21′9″E
⁃ المنسوب	910 متر منابع عين الزرقا، منابع الزراعة في شمال البقاع
المصب	السويدية
- الموقع	محافظة هاتاي، تركيا
- الإحداثيات	36°2′43″N 35°57′49″E
الطول	571 km (355 mi)
مساحة الحوض	24,660 km2 (9,520 sq mi)
التدفق
⁃ المتوسط	11 m3/s (390 cu ft/s)

نهر العاصي هو نهر ينبع في لبنان ويمر في سوريا ليصب في البحر المتوسط. ينبع نهر العاصي من أعالي سهل البقاع في لبنان وليس له منبع وحيد بل ثلاث مجموعات من المنابع أهمها مجموعة منابع اللبوة وعين فليكة ورأس بعلبك، ومجموعة منابع عين الزرقا وشواغير الهرمل من سفوح الجبال الغربية، ومجموعة منابع الزراعة قرب بلدة جوسية في شمال البقاع، حيث يدخل بعدها إلى الأراضي السورية ليشكل وادى العاصي المعروف في سوريا. يمر أولا في مدينة حمص وبعدها يمر في مدينة حماة حيث أقيمت عليه نواعير عملاقة هي الأكبر من نوعها في العالم وتنتشر على جنبات النهر البساتين والخضرة. يتجه النهر إلى الشمال ليصل مدينة أنطاكية في لواء اسكندرونة السوري الواقع اليوم تحت السيطرة التركية، ثم يصب في البحر المتوسط. يبلغ طوله 571 كم. توفر السدود المقامة على العاصي في سوريا الري لمساحات شاسعة من الأراضي.

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 سبب التسمية

نواعير على نهر العاصي في شيزر، محافظة حماة، سوريا

سمي بهذا الاسم لأنه يجري بعكس اتجاه أنهار المنطقة أي من الجنوب نحو الشمال.

مدينة أنطاكية على نهر العاصي.

In the 9th century BCE, the ancient Assyrians referred to the river as Arantu, and the nearby Egyptians called it Araunti. The etymology of the name is unknown, yet some sources indicate that it might be derived from Arnt which means "lioness" in Syriac languages; others called it Alimas, a "water goddess" in Aramaic. However, Arantu gradually became "Orontes" in Greek.

In the Greek epic poem Dionysiaca (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. According to the Greek geographer Strabo (in Geographica, circa 20 CE), the river was originally named Typhon, because it was said that Zeus had struck the dragon Typhon down from the sky with thunder, and the river had formed where Typhon's body had fallen; however, the river was later renamed Orontes when a man named Orontes built a bridge on it.

In contrast, Macedonian settlers in Apamea named it the Axius, after a Macedonian river god. The Arabic name العاصي (al-‘Āṣī) is derived from the ancient Axius. The word coincidentally means "insubordinate" in Arabic, which folk etymology ascribes to the fact that the river flows from the south to the north unlike the rest of the rivers in the region.

The part of the river flowing from Lake Homs to Homs is known as al-Mimas, after the sanctuary of Deir Mimas situated there in honor of Saint Mamas.

 المسار

The Orontes rises in the springs near Labweh in Lebanon on the east side of the Beqaa Valley (in the Beqaa Governorate) between Mount Lebanon on the west and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains on the east, very near the source of the southward-flowing Litani, and runs north, falling 600 metres (2,000 ft) through a gorge to leave the valley. The Ain ez Zarqa is one such major spring. Other major springs are Al Ghab, Al Rouj, and Al-Azraq.

The Orontes flowing at the foot of the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range

Orontes River in Hama, Syria

Leaving this gorge, it expands into the Lake of Homs (an artificial lake created by a Roman-era dam, also known as Qattinah lake) in the Homs Governorate of Syria and through the city of Homs (or Ḥimṣ). Next it flows through the Hama Governorate and its capital of Hamah (Hamaih-Epiphaneia), and the ancient site of Larissa (Shaizar). This is where the river enters the سهل الغاب. Further downstream, on the eastern edge of the Ghab, is located the ancient city of Apamea. To the west is the Coastal Mountain Range. The last Syrian governorate it goes through is Idlib and the city of Jisr al-Shughur. This section ends at the rocky barrier of Jisr al-Hadid, where the river turns west into the plain of Antioch (Amik Valley) in the Hatay Province of Turkey.

The Orontes in Antakya, Hatay

Two major tributaries, the southward-flowing Afrin River on the west and the Karasu on the east, join the Orontes through the former Lake Amik via an artificial channel (Nahr al-Kowsit). Passing north of Antakya (ancient Antioch), the Orontes dives southwest into a gorge (compared by the ancients to Tempe), and falls 50 metres (160 ft) in 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) to the sea just south of Samandağ (former Suedia, in antiquity Seleucia Pieria), after a total course of 450 kilometres (280 mi).

Major dams on the river

Name	Nearest City	Year	Height (m)	Capacity (million m3)	Note
Al-Rastan	Homs	1960	67	228
Qattinah	Homs	1976	7	200	originally built 284 CE
Mouhardeh	Hama	1960	41	67
Zeyzoun	Hamah	1995	43	71	failed 2002
Kastoun	Hamah	1992	20	27

 التاريخ

The Orontes is not easily navigable and the valley derives its historical importance as a road for north–south traffic; from Antioch south to Homs and thence to Damascus via al-Nabek. The Orontes has long been a boundary marker. For the Ancient Egyptians it marked the northern extremity of Amurru, east of Phoenicia. On the Orontes was fought the major Battle of Kadesh (circa 1274 BCE) between the Egyptian army of Ramesses II from the south and the Hittite army of Muwatalli II from the north. The river was also the site of the Battle of Qarqar fought in 853 BCE, when the army of Assyria, led by king Shalmaneser III, encountered an allied army of 12 kings led by Hadadezer of Damascus.

Bronze copy, 1st or 2nd century CE, from Tartus of Eutychides' Tyche of Antioch, 4th century BCE, Louvre Museum; at the goddess' feet a male swimmer personifying the Orontes is represented.

Alexander the Great acquired the river valley after the defeat of the Persians in 333 BCE at the Battle of Issus. After his death in 323 BCE, it became part of the Seleucid Empire.

Seleucid cities founded on the Orontes included Seleucia ad Belum, Antigonia, and Antioch. Several Hellenistic artefacts feature the Tyche of Antioch with a male swimmer personifying the Orontes at her feet.

In 64 BCE Pompey took the Orontes river valley and made it part of the new Roman province of Syria with Antioch as its capital. Lake Homs Dam was built by the Roman emperor Diocletian in 290 CE. 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 of Coele Syria and the upper Orontes from Emesa (modern day Homs) south in Syria Phoenice. Emesa was later raised to co-capital of the latter.

In 637 CE the Battle of the Iron Bridge near Antioch was fought between the forces of the Rashidun Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire near the Iron bridge and won by the former which shortly took control of the whole of the river valley.

For the Crusaders in the 12th century, the Orontes River became the permanent boundary between the Principality of Antioch and that of Aleppo.

The construction of a Syria–Turkey Friendship Dam was started in 2011 but postponed because of the Syrian Civil War.

 في الفن

The French writer Maurice Barrès purportedly transcribed in Un jardin sur l'Oronte (1922) a story that an Irish archaeologist had translated for him from a manuscript one evening in June 1914 at a café in Hama by the Orontes.

 انظر أيضا

• النواعير
• المينا على العاصي – archaeological site at the mouth of the Orontes
• بعلبك – a town and archaeological site just to the south of the source of the Orontes
• تل طعينات وتل العطشانة – archaeological sites near each other in Hatay
• Water resources management in Syria

 المراجع

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Orontes" . دائرة المعارف البريطانية (eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

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 وصلات خارجية

• 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.
• Map of the Orontes River Basin: "Inventory of Shared Water Resources in Western Asia: Orontes Basin" (PDF). United Nations. 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
• صورة الساتل (القمر الصناعي) لمنابع نهر العاصي.