Deir Qanoun Ras al-Ain () (Lit. Fountain-head; The head of the Spring) is a place abounding with immense fountains, with reservoirs and aqueducts south of Tyre, and ca. south of

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, in the South Governorate (Liban-Sud), in the municipality of Deir Qanoun Ras al-Ain. The place lies in a very green and fertile plain, about one kilometer from the sea coast. It is a popular tourist destination, owing to its

artesian well An artesian well is a well that brings groundwater to the surface without pumping because it is under pressure within a body of rock or sediment known as an aquifer. When trapped water in an aquifer is surrounded by layers of Permeability (ea ...

s fed by underground springs and collected in stone reservoirs that have been maintained through the ages.

History

Ras al-Ain has been the main source of water for ancient Tyre since Phoenician days. One of the reservoirs fed the arched aqueducts of the

Roman period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, and which once stretched all the way to Tyre. Remains of these aqueducts, exhibiting strong and excellent masonry, with round arches and a continuous

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

above them, can still be seen today, and a short stretch of the original aqueduct is still used today in Tyre's present-day waterworks. A-343 - Ras al-Ayin in South Lebanon

A reference to this place is mentioned in the 3rd century

Mosaic of Rehob The Mosaic of Reḥob (, also known as the Tel Rehov inscription and the Baraita of the Boundaries), is a late 3rd–6th century Common Era, CE mosaic discovered in 1973. The mosaic, written in late Mishnaic Hebrew, describes the geography and ...

as ''Rosh Mayya'' (Fountain-head). In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described it: "A village built of stone, containing about 100 Metawileh, in the plain, surrounded by gardens of figs, pomegranates, mulberries, and olives. Five mills in the village, and near, in working order,a good many ruined." They further noted about the waterways: This is the spring-head which supplied ancient Tyre by means of a long aqueduct. The springs are enclosed in four strongly-built reservoirs, as at Tabghah, by means of which the water is raised to a height of from fifteen to twenty feet, in order that an aqueduct with a slight fall should be able to carry it to the neighbourhood of Tyre. The walls of these reservoirs are of large well-dressed

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

-work, and vary in thickness. The stones are joined and coated on the inside with strong cement. The principal reservoir is octagonal in shape, with sides of irregular length. Its diameter measures sixty-six feet, and it is twenty-five feet above the ground. The retaining walls are very thick, and show traces of modern repairs in one part. They have so gentle a slope that it is not difficult to ride up on to the broad border eight feet wide round the spring."

Demographics

In 2014

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

made up 99.69% of registered voters in Deir Qanoun Ras al-Ain. 99.28% of the voters were Shiite Muslims.https://lub-anan.com/المحافظات/الجنوب/صور/دير-قانون-رأس-العين/المذاهب/

References

Bibliography

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External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 1:
IAAWikimedia commonsRas el-Ain, in the Tyre District
Lebanon {{Tyre District Populated places in Tyre District Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon Archaeological sites in Lebanon Roman aqueducts outside Rome Geography of Lebanon

History

Demographics

See also

References

Bibliography

External links