Banias River ( ar, نهر بانياس Nahr Baniyas; he, נחל חרמון Nahal Hermon) is a river in the Golan Heights. It is the easternmost of the three main northern tributaries of the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

; together with the Dan River and the

Snir Stream The Hasbani River ( ar, الحاصباني / ALA-LC: ''al-Ḥāṣbānī''; he, חצבני ''Ḥatzbaní'') or Snir Stream ( he, נחל שניר / ''Nahal Sənir''), is the major tributary of the Jordan River. Local natives in the mid-19th cent ...

, it forms the Jordan River's upper catchment (UCJR). Israel has included the stream in the

Hermon nature reserve Hermon nature reserve ( he, שמורת חרמון) is a nature reserve in the north of the Golan Heights. It includes an area in southern Mount Hermon which is located in the Israeli occupied portion of the Golan Heights. The reserve excludes t ...

Course and streamflow

The main source of the Banias River is the Banias spring, located at the southern base of the

Hermon Mount Hermon ( ar, جبل الشيخ or جبل حرمون / ALA-LC: ''Jabal al-Shaykh'' ("Mountain of the Sheikh") or ''Jabal Haramun''; he, הַר חֶרְמוֹן, ''Har Hermon'') is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the ...

mountain range and contributing a

discharge Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...

of 67·million m³ annually. From there the stream flows south for nine kilometers before draining into the Dan River. Along the way, it drains the Guvta Stream (right), the Sa'ar Stream (left), the Pera' Stream (left), and the Sion (Ar.: el-'Asl) Stream (right), with a total drainage area of 158 km². The total annual streamflow of the river comes to 106 million m³.

Flora and fauna

The banks of the river abound in willow trees, oriental planes, silver-leaf poplars, Tabor oaks, Palestine oaks, Mt. Atlas mastics, terebinths, carobs, ferns, giant canes, and various vines. The stream is home to a variety of fluvial fish, including longhead barbel, large-scale barbel, Damascus barbel, and tilapia. Living and roaming around the stream or in it are wild boars, Syrian rock hyrax,

swamp cat The jungle cat (''Felis chaus''), also called reed cat, swamp cat and jungle lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to the Middle East, the Caucasus, South and Southeast Asia and southern China. It inhabits foremost wetlands like swamps, littoral a ...

s, nutria, and Indian porcupines. Birds that frequent the vicinity of the stream include rock doves and

Western rock nuthatch The western rock nuthatch (''Sitta neumayer'') (sometimes known simply as rock nuthatch) is a small passerine bird which breeds from Croatia east through Greece and Turkey to Iran. This nuthatch is largely resident apart from some post-breeding di ...

References

{{commonscat Rivers of Syria Tributaries of the Jordan River Hebrew Bible rivers Geography of the Middle East