Orontes (river)

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Orontes
Arabic نهر العاصي Nahr al-ʿAsi , DMG Nahr al-ʿĀṣī , Turkish Asi Nehri
Map of the Orontes river.png
Data
location Lebanon , Syria , Turkey
River system Orontes
source Laboue, Beqaa north of Baalbek
34 ° 11 ′ 49 ″  N , 36 ° 21 ′ 9 ″  E
Source height 910  m
muzzle at Samandağ in the Mediterranean Coordinates: 36 ° 2 '43 "  N , 35 ° 57' 49"  E 36 ° 2 '43 "  N , 35 ° 57' 49"  E
Mouth height 0  m
Height difference 910 m
Bottom slope 1.6 ‰
length 571 km
Catchment area 22,300 km²
Drain MQ
 80 m³ / s
Right tributaries Afrin , Kara Su

The Orontes or Asi ( Arabic نهر العاصي Nahr al-ʿAsi , DMG Nahr al-ʿĀṣī , Turkish Asi Nehri , Greek Ορόντης) is a 571 km long river in Lebanon , Syria and Turkey .

Surname

Orontes at Antakya

In Turkey, the river is also called Ters akan nehir , which means " wrongly flowing river" in German. In Arabic, Nahr means “river”, al-ʿĀṣī “the unruly, defiant” and refers to its wild flow. Strabo stated in his Geographika that the Syrian river Typhon Orontes was called because Orontes I had crossed this river, probably during the war against Euagoras I of Salamis. Before that, the river was known by the names Typhon , Drakon, and Ophites . These names, which mean snake in ancient Greek , go back to a local legend. The river was called Pharphar in Franconia (after 2 Kings 5.12 EU ).

geography

The Orontes rises from a karst spring in the Bekaa plain (Lebanon) north of the city of Baalbek and is fed by the melt waters of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon . Its largest tributaries are the Afrin ( Nahr Afrin ) and the Kara Su (Turkish black water ). The catchment area is 23,000 square kilometers. The river carries most of the water in March; an average of 30 m³ / s is then measured at the Jisr asch-Shugur gauge .

The upper reaches include the Homs basin. The Orontes flows here in a northerly direction through the cities of Homs and Hama in Syria, where various dams enable the irrigation of fertile valleys, including the Zeyzoun Dam . The middle reaches the Aharna and Ghab plains . The Ghab plain separates the Jebel Ansariye massif in the west from the northern Syrian limestone massif in the east. Near the city of Antakya in the Turkish province of Hatay , the Orontes changes its direction of flow to the west and flows into the Mediterranean at Samandağ . There the Orontes seems to flow upside down, the optical illusion is created by the low water and strong winds. In ancient times the lower reaches were partly navigable.

Up until the Quattine Dam on the Lebanese border, which was built in 1937, the river is relatively clean, but its central reaches are increasingly polluted by sewage. The nitrogen content increases while the free oxygen content and pH decrease. The Ar-Rastan reservoir acts as a sediment trap. Due to the derivation of numerous irrigation systems , the lower course of the river is heavily salinated . In addition, algae blooms often occur .

geology

Up to the middle Tertiary the Lebanon Mountains and the Jebel Ansariye formed a continuous mountain range and a watershed for the Orontes and the Afrin, both of which drained eastward into the Euphrates, as far as the mountains of the Hatay province . The opening to the Mediterranean at Antakya only emerged in the late Pliocene . The course of the river forms the northern continuation of the Jordan Rift and the northern extension of the African Rift Valley from the Bekaa Plain via the Ghab Plain .

history

Bucket wheel in Hama

According to Strabo, the first dams were already built by the Egyptians. The dam at Qattinah , which dams Lake Homs , dates from Roman times, but is still in use today. The Orontes is described by Pliny and Strabo.

As Battle of the Orontes which are Battle of Kadesh in 1274 v. Between Ramses II. And the Hittite king Muwatalli II. Or the battle of 94 BC. Between the Seleucids Antiochus XI. and Antiochus X. Eusebes.

In the Dionysiacs of the Nonnos of Panopolis it is reported in the 17th song that on Dionysus' journey to India the battle with Orontes, the son-in-law of the Indian king Deriades, takes place. In the fight against the god Orontes falls and falls into the river that bears his name after him.

Syrian civil war

On July 4, 2011, the mutilated body of the hitherto unknown Ibrahim Qaschusch was recovered from the river near Hama. Citing information from opposition circles that was later denied, Qashush became known worldwide as the singer of the revolution's most famous protest song, allegedly murdered by the secret service in revenge.

On October 13, 2016, the rebel leader Abu Jafar Al-Homsi drowned in the river near Darkusch , northwest of Idlib . According to witnesses, his death occurred under mysterious circumstances, but the FSA subgroup to which Al-Homsi belonged spoke of an accident.

literature

  • Ragnar Kinzelbach: Hydrobiology on the Orontes. In: Nature and Museum. Report of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society. Frankfurt / Main 1980, 110 (1), pp. 9-18, ISSN  0028-1301
  • Jaques Weulersse: L'Oronte. Etude de Fleuve. Tours 1940

Web links

Commons : Orontes (river)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Article Orontes (river) in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE) , 3rd edition 1969–1978 (Russian)http: //vorlage_gse.test/1%3D126336~2a%3D~2b%3DOrontes%20%28Fluss%29
  2. ^ Marion Meyer: The personification of the city Antiocheia. A new image for a new deity. De Gruyter , Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-11-019110-3 , p. 113 ( available online at Google Books )
  3. ^ Z. Kattan: Use of 15N / 14N ratio to evaluate the anthropogenic source of nitrates in surface and groundwaters in the Upper Orontes Basin (central Syria). In: Study of Environmental Change using Isotope Techniques. International Conference held in Vienna, 23-27 April 2001, p. 417
  4. ^ Eugen Wirth : Syria, a geographical country study. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1971, p. 63
  5. ↑ James Harkin: The incredible story behind the Syrian protest singer everyone thought was dead , in: GQ Magazine, December 7, 2016, accessed March 21, 2017
  6. ↑ Prominent Commander Abu Ja'far al-Homsi died. Zaman Al-Wasl, October 13, 2016, accessed October 14, 2016 .