The Nahr al-Kabir, also known in Syria as al-Nahr al-Kabir al-Janoubi ( ar, النهر الكبير الجنوبي, lit=the southern great river, by contrast with the

Nahr al-Kabir al-Shamali , uga, 𐎗𐎈𐎁𐎐 , name_etymology = , image = بحيرات_النهر_الكبير_الشمالي.JPG , image_size = 300 , image_caption = , map = , map_size = , map_caption ...

) or in Lebanon simply as the Kebir, is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

flowing into the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

at Arida. The river is long, and drains a watershed of . Its headwaters are at the Ain as-Safa spring in Lebanon and it flows through the

Homs Gap The Homs Gap ( ar, فتحة حمص) (also called the Akkar Gap and known in Arabic as al-Buqay'a) is a relatively flat passage in the Orontes River Valley of southern Syria. Nicknamed the "gateway to Syria," the gap separates the An-Nusayriyah M ...

. The river forms the northern part of the

Lebanon–Syria border The Lebanon–Syria border is 394 km (245 m) in length and runs from the Mediterranean coast in the north to the tripoint with Israel in the south. Description The border starts at confluence of the Nahr al-Kabir river with the Mediterranea ...

. In antiquity, the river was known as ''Eleutherus'' (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Ελεύθερος ''Eleutheros'', Ελευθερίς ''Eleuteris'' ''lit.'' 'free'). It defined the border between the

Seleucid The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...

and

Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty * Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter * Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining ...

empires during much of the 3rd century BCE. The river is mentioned by

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...

Josephus, ''

The Jewish War ''The Jewish War'' or ''Judean War'' (in full ''Flavius Josephus' Books of the History of the Jewish War against the Romans'', el, Φλαυίου Ἰωσήπου ἱστορία Ἰουδαϊκοῦ πολέμου πρὸς Ῥωμαίους ...

'' 1:363 pg 75 Translated by G.A.Williamson 1959, printed 1981 and in

1 Maccabees The First Book of Maccabees, also known as First Maccabees (written in shorthand as 1 Maccabees or 1 Macc.), is a book written in Hebrew by an anonymousRappaport, U., ''47. 1 Maccabees'' in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001)The Oxford Bible Comme ...

11:7 and 12:30.

References

Rivers of Lebanon Rivers of Syria International rivers of Asia Lebanon–Syria border {{Syria-river-stub