The Awali ( /

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ''Nahr al-Awalī'', ancient Bostrenus / Bostrenos) is a

perennial river A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

flowing in Southern

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. In ancient times it was known as Asclepius River. The long Awali originates from the Barouk mountain at a height of and the Niha mountain. The Awali is supplemented by two tributaries, the Barouk and Aaray rivers. The Awali is also known as the Bisri river in its upper section; it flows through the western face of

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon (, ; , ; ) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It is about long and averages above in elevation, with its peak at . The range provides a typical alpine climate year-round. Mount Lebanon is well-known for its snow-covered mountains, ...

and into the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

. The Awali river has a discharge of , it forms a watershed that has an area of about . The river flows into Joun Lake, which is part of the

Bisri Dam The Bisri Dam is a planned dam on the Bisri river in Lebanon. The dam is part of the Lebanon Water Supply Augmentation project, with water management as the primary purpose. The project is organised by the Government of Lebanon in order to tackle ...

project to improve the supply of fresh water to the region. A large portion of the Bisri Dam project funding, from the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

, was cancelled by the World Bank in September 2020.

References

{{coord, 33.5888, N, 35.3860, E, source:wikidata, display=title Rivers of Lebanon