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49-504: As the chief river of the northern Levant , the Orontes has been the site of many major battles including the Battle of Kadesh (13th century BCE), and water distribution remains a controversial issue between the countries in the region. Among the most important cities on the river are Homs , Hama , Jisr al-Shughur , and Antakya (the ancient Antioch , which was also known as "Antioch on

98-785: A Muslim majority in the Levant is presumed to have been reached by the 13th century. The majority of Levantine Muslims are Sunnis adhering to the four madhhabs ( Hanafi , Shafi'i , Hanbali and Maliki ). Islamic minorities include the Alawites and Nizari Ismailis in Syria, and Twelver Shiites in Lebanon . Levantine Christian groups include Greek Orthodox ( Antiochian Greek ), Syriac Orthodox , Eastern Catholic ( Syriac Catholic , Melkite and Maronite ), Roman Catholic ( Latin ), Nestorian , and Protestant . Armenians mostly belong to

147-519: A male swimmer personifying the Orontes at her feet. In 64 BCE Pompey took the Orontes river valley and made it part of the new Roman province of Syria with Antioch as its capital. Lake Homs Dam was built by the Roman emperor Diocletian in 290 CE. In addition to Lake Homs, further Roman dams and dykes would be built along the Orontes river around Apamea, to better irrigate the Ghab plain. In 198 CE

196-476: A total course of 450 kilometres (280 mi). The Orontes is not easily navigable and the valley derives its historical importance as a road for north–south traffic; from Antioch south to Homs and thence to Damascus via al-Nabek . The Orontes has long been a boundary marker. For the Ancient Egyptians it marked the northern extremity of Amurru , east of Phoenicia. On the Orontes was fought

245-528: A variety of Arabic descended from the pre-Islamic Arabic dialects of Syria and Hejazi Arabic , but retaining significant influence from Western Middle Aramaic . Levantine Arabic is usually classified as North Levantine Arabic in Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Turkey, and South Levantine Arabic in Palestine and Jordan. Each of these encompasses a spectrum of regional or urban/rural variations. In addition to

294-540: Is a term used to define the historical and geographical subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west and core West Asia , or by the political term, Middle East to the east . In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is equivalent to Cyprus and a stretch of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea in western Asia: i.e.

343-544: Is also used for modern events, peoples, states or parts of states in the same region, namely Cyprus , Egypt , Iraq , Israel , Jordan , Lebanon , Palestine , Syria , and Turkey are sometimes considered Levant countries (compare with Near East , Middle East , Eastern Mediterranean and West Asia ). Several researchers include the island of Cyprus in Levantine studies, including the Council for British Research in

392-512: Is literally "rising", deriving from Latin orior 'rise'. The notion of the Levant has undergone a dynamic process of historical evolution in usage, meaning, and understanding. While the term "Levantine" originally referred to the European residents of the eastern Mediterranean region, it later came to refer to regional "native" and "minority" groups. The term became current in English in

441-1073: Is ultimately from the Latin word levare , meaning 'lift, raise'. Similar etymologies are found in Greek Ἀνατολή Anatolē ( cf. Anatolia 'the direction of sunrise'), in Germanic Morgenland ( lit.   ' morning land ' ), in Italian (as in Riviera di Levante , the portion of the Liguria coast east of Genoa ), in Hungarian Kelet ('east'), in Spanish and Catalan Levante and Llevant , ('the place of rising'), and in Hebrew מִזְרָח mizraḥ ('east'). Most notably, "Orient" and its Latin source oriens meaning 'east',

490-669: The Armenian Apostolic Church . There are also Levantines or Franco-Levantines who adhere to Roman Catholicism . There are also Assyrians belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church . Other religious groups in the Levant include Jews , Samaritans , Yazidis and Druze . Most populations in the Levant speak Levantine Arabic ( شامي , Šāmī ),

539-601: The Bronze and Iron age Levant. Other Arabs include the Bedouins of Syrian Desert , Naqab and eastern Syria , who speak Bedouin Arabic . Non-Arab minorities include Circassians , Chechens , Turks , Jews , Turkmens , Assyrians , Kurds , Nawars and Armenians . Overlapping regional designations Subregional designations Others Other places in the east of a larger region Lake Amik Lake Amik or

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588-719: The Caucasus Mountains, or any part of the Arabian Peninsula proper. Cilicia (in Asia Minor) and the Sinai Peninsula (Asian Egypt) are sometimes included. As a name for the contemporary region, several dictionaries consider Levant to be archaic today. Both the noun Levant and the adjective Levantine are now commonly used to describe the ancient and modern culture area formerly called Syro-Palestinian or Biblical: archaeologists now speak of

637-579: The Dead Sea Transform and historically covered an area of some 300–350 km (120–140 sq mi), increasing during flood periods. It was surrounded by extensive marshland . Sedimentary analysis has suggested that Lake Amik was formed, in its final state, in the past 3,000 years by episodic floods and silting up of the outlet to the Orontes River. This dramatic increase in the lake's area had displaced many settlements during

686-579: The Lake of Antioch ( Arabic : بحيرة العمق ; Turkish : Amik Gölü ) was a large freshwater lake in the basin of the Orontes River in Hatay Province , Turkey. It was located north-east of the ancient city of Antioch (modern Antakya ). The lake was drained between the 1940s–1970s. Lake Amik was located in the centre of Amik Plain ( Turkish : Amik Ovası ) on the northernmost part of

735-589: The Lake of Homs (an artificial lake created by a Roman-era dam , also known as Qattinah lake) in the Homs Governorate of Syria and through the city of Homs (or Ḥimṣ). Next it flows through the Hama Governorate and its capital of Hamah (Hamaih-Epiphaneia), and the ancient site of Larissa ( Shaizar ). This is where the river enters the Ghab plain . Further downstream, on the eastern edge of

784-582: The Levant Company to trade with the Ottoman Empire . The name Levant States was used to refer to the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon after World War I . This is probably the reason why the term Levant has come to be used more specifically to refer to modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and the island of Cyprus . Some scholars mistakenly believed that it derives from

833-735: The Southern Levant . While the usage of the term "Levant" in academia has been restricted to the fields of archeology and literature, there is a recent attempt to reclaim the notion of the Levant as a category of analysis in political and social sciences. Two academic journals were launched in the early 2010s using the word: the Journal of Levantine Studies , published by the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and The Levantine Review , published by Boston College . The word Levant has been used in some translations of

882-630: The Syrian Civil War . The war has also seen the siege of Homs from May 2011 until May 2014. The French writer Maurice Barrès purportedly transcribed in Un jardin sur l'Oronte (1922) a story that an Irish archaeologist had translated for him from a manuscript one evening in June 1914 at a café in Hama by the Orontes. Levant The Levant ( / l ə ˈ v æ n t / lə- VANT )

931-649: The 16th century, along with the first English merchant adventurers in the region; English ships appeared in the Mediterranean in the 1570s, and the English merchant company signed its agreement (" capitulations ") with the Ottoman Sultan in 1579. The English Levant Company was founded in 1581 to trade with the Ottoman Empire , and in 1670 the French Compagnie du Levant  [ fr ]

980-540: The Ghab, is located the ancient city of Apamea . To the west is the Coastal Mountain Range . The last Syrian governorate it goes through is Idlib and the city of Jisr al-Shughur . This section ends at the rocky barrier of Jisr al-Hadid , where the river turns west into the plain of Antioch ( Amik Valley ) in the Hatay Province of Turkey. Two major tributaries, the southward-flowing Afrin River on

1029-462: The Greek epic poem Dionysiaca (circa 400 CE), the river is said to have been named after Orontes, an Indian military leader who killed himself and fell into the river after losing to Dionysus in single combat. According to the Greek geographer Strabo (in Geographica , circa 20 CE), the river was originally named Typhon , because it was said that Zeus had struck the dragon Typhon down from

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1078-513: The Levant share not only geographic position, but cuisine , some customs, and history . They are often referred to as Levantines . The term Levant appears in English in 1497 , and originally meant 'the East ' or 'Mediterranean lands east of Italy'. It is borrowed from the French levant 'rising', referring to the rising of the sun in the east, or the point where the sun rises. The phrase

1127-543: The Levant , the UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department, Journal of Levantine Studies and the UCL Institute of Archaeology, the last of which has dated the connection between Cyprus and mainland Levant to the early Iron Age . Archaeologists seeking a neutral orientation that is neither biblical nor national have used terms such as Levantine archaeology and archaeology of

1176-604: The Levant and of Levantine archaeology ; food scholars speak of Levantine cuisine ; and the Latin Christians of the Levant continue to be called Levantine Christians . The Levant has been described as the "crossroads of Western Asia , the Eastern Mediterranean, and Northeast Africa ", and in geological ( tectonic ) terms as the "northwest of the Arabian Plate ". The populations of

1225-507: The Orontes"). In the 9th century BCE, the ancient Assyrians referred to the river as Arantu , and the nearby Egyptians called it Araunti . The etymology of the name is unknown, yet some sources indicate that it might be derived from Arnt which means "lioness" in Syriac languages ; others called it Alimas , a "water goddess" in Aramaic . Arantu gradually became "Orontes" in Greek. In

1274-526: The boundaries of the Levant as follows. A distinction is made between the main subregions of the Levant, the northern and the southern: The island of Cyprus is also included as a third subregion in the archaeological region of the Levant: The vast majority of Levantines are Muslims . After the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century, Islam was first introduced into the region. However,

1323-486: The classical period; the lake became an important source of fish and shellfish for the surrounding area and the city of Antioch. The 14th century Arab geographer Abu al-Fida described the lake as having sweet water and being 20 mi (32 km) long and 7 mi (11 km) wide, while an 18th-century traveller, Richard Pococke , noted that it was then locally called "Bahr-Agoule (the White Lake) by reaſon of

1372-409: The colour of its waters". By the 20th century, the lake supported around 50,000 inhabitants in 70 villages, who took part in stock raising, reed harvesting, fishing (with a particularly significant eel fishery) and agriculture, crops and fodder being grown on pastures formed during the summer as the lake waters receded. They also constructed dwellings, locally known as Huğ , from reeds gathered in

1421-531: The countries along the Eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece in Southern Europe to Egypt and Cyrenaica (Eastern Libya) in Northern Africa . In the 13th and 14th centuries, the term levante was used for Italian maritime commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean, including Greece, Anatolia , Syria-Palestine , and Egypt , that is, the lands east of Venice . Eventually

1470-543: The fact that the river flows from the south to the north unlike the rest of the rivers in the region. The part of the river flowing from Lake Homs to Homs is known as al-Mimas , after the sanctuary of Deir Mimas situated there in honor of Saint Mamas . The Orontes rises in the springs near Labweh in Lebanon on the east side of the Beqaa Valley (in the Beqaa Governorate ) between Mount Lebanon on

1519-502: The historical region of Syria ("Greater Syria"), which includes present-day Israel , Jordan , Lebanon , Syria , the Palestinian territories and most of Turkey southwest of the middle Euphrates . Its overwhelming characteristic is that it represents the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia . In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the Eastern Mediterranean with its islands; that is, it included all of

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1568-577: The lake's tributary rivers (the Karasu , the ancient Labotas, and the Afrin , the ancient Arceuthus or Arxeuthas) directly to the Orontes was undertaken from 1966 by the State Hydraulic Works , with further works completed by the early 1970s; by this time the lake had been completely drained, and its bed reclaimed for farmland. As of 2007, Hatay Airport has been constructed in the centre of

1617-589: The lake. Lake Amik was an extremely valuable habitat on the migratory routes of waterfowl and other birds, especially white storks and pelicans , and was noted for an isolated breeding population of the African darter . It also supported populations of endemic birds ; a possible distinct subspecies of the black francolin ( Francolinus francolinus billypayni ) and the similarly distinct southern Turkish bearded reedling ( Panurus biarmicus kosswigi ). A ray-finned fish species Hemigrammocapoeta caudomaculata

1666-415: The lakebed. There have increasingly been reports that the draining of Lake Amik has caused severe environmental damage. Reclaimed and irrigated land has been affected by increasing soil salinity , and productivity has fallen. Despite the drainage works, many areas still regularly flood, requiring constant maintenance of drainage canals and further decreasing the productivity of the reclaimed farmland, while

1715-569: The major Battle of Kadesh (circa 1274 BCE) between the Egyptian army of Ramesses II from the south and the Hittite army of Muwatalli II from the north. The river was also the site of the Battle of Qarqar fought in 853 BCE, when the army of Assyria , led by king Shalmaneser III , encountered an allied army of 12 kings led by Hadadezer of Damascus . Alexander the Great acquired

1764-576: The name of Lebanon. Today the term is often used in conjunction with prehistoric or ancient historical references. Another term for "Syria-Palestine" is Ash- Shaam ( Arabic : ٱلشَّام , /ʔaʃ.ʃaːm/ ), the area that is bounded by the Taurus Mountains of Turkey in the north, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the north Arabian Desert and Mesopotamia in the east, and Sinai in the south (which can be fully included or not). Typically, it does not include Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor),

1813-655: The north. Two minority languages are recognized: Armenian , and Cypriot Maronite Arabic , a hybrid of mostly medieval Arabic vernaculars with strong influence from contact with Turkish and Greek, spoken by approximately 1,000 people. Western Neo-Aramaic is additionally spoken in three villages in Syria: Maaloula , Jubb'adin and Bakhah . Among diaspora communities based in the Levant, Greek , Armenian and Circassian are also spoken. According to recent ancient DNA studies, Levantines derive most of their ancestry from ancient Semitic-speaking peoples of

1862-441: The place instead of any one culture. The French mandate of Syria and Lebanon (1920–1946) was called the Levant states. Today, "Levant" is the term typically used by archaeologists and historians with reference to the history of the region. Scholars have adopted the term Levant to identify the region due to its being a "wider, yet relevant, cultural corpus" that does not have the "political overtones" of Syria-Palestine. The term

1911-741: The province was split with the lower Orontes in the new province of Coele Syria and the upper Orontes from Emesa (modern day Homs) south in Syria Phoenice . Emesa was later raised to co-capital of the latter. In 637 CE the Battle of the Iron Bridge near Antioch was fought between the forces of the Rashidun Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire near the Iron bridge and won by the former which shortly took control of

1960-632: The river valley after the defeat of the Persians in 333 BCE at the Battle of Issus (fought on the Pinarus river near modern İskenderun and north of modern Antakya). After his death in 323 BCE, it became part of the Seleucid Empire . Seleucid cities founded on the Orontes included Seleucia ad Belum , Antigonia , and Antioch . Several Hellenistic artefacts feature the Tyche of Antioch with

2009-532: The sky with thunder, and the river had formed where Typhon's body had fallen; however, the river was later renamed Orontes when a man named Orontes built a bridge on it. Macedonian settlers in Apamea named it the Axius , after a Macedonian river god. The Arabic name العاصي ( al-‘Āṣī ) is derived from the ancient Axius . The word coincidentally means "insubordinate" in Arabic, which folk etymology ascribes to

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2058-636: The term ash-Shām as used by the organization known as ISIL, ISIS, and other names , though there is disagreement as to whether this translation is accurate. In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Levant: c. 8000–332 BCE (OHAL; 2013), the definition of the Levant for the specific purposes of the book is synonymous to that of the Arabic " bilad al-sham , 'the land of sham [Syria]'", translating in Western parlance to greater Syria . OHAL defines

2107-428: The term was restricted to the Muslim countries of Syria-Palestine and Egypt. The term entered English in the late 15th century from French. It derives from the Italian levante , meaning "rising", implying the rising of the Sun in the east, and is broadly equivalent to the term al-Mashriq ( Arabic : ٱلْمَشْرِق , [ʔal.maʃ.riq] ), meaning "the eastern place, where the Sun rises". In 1581, England set up

2156-400: The varieties normally grouped together as "Levantine", a number of other varieties and dialects of Arabic are spoken in the Levant area, such as Levantine Bedawi Arabic (by Bedouins ) and Mesopotamian Arabic (in eastern Syria). Of the languages of Cyprus , the two official languages are Turkish and Greek. The most used languages by population are Greek in the south followed by Turkish in

2205-465: The west and the Anti-Lebanon Mountains on the east, very near the source of the southward-flowing Litani , and runs north, falling 600 metres (2,000 ft) through a gorge to leave the valley. The Ain ez Zarqa is one such major spring. Other major springs are Al Ghab, Al Rouj, and Al-Azraq. The river's drainage basin within Lebanon is 1,930 km (750 sq mi); the country's second largest behind Litani. Leaving this gorge, it expands into

2254-410: The west and the Karasu on the east, join the Orontes through the former Lake Amik via an artificial channel (Nahr al-Kowsit). Passing north of Antakya (ancient Antioch), the Orontes dives southwest into a gorge (compared by the ancients to Tempe ), and falls 50 metres (160 ft) in 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) to the sea just south of Samandağ (former Suedia, in antiquity Seleucia Pieria), after

2303-403: The whole of the river valley. For the Crusaders in the 12th century, the Orontes River became the permanent boundary between the Principality of Antioch and that of Aleppo . A diversion dam in Lebanon was 60% complete when Israeli airstrikes damaged it during the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War . The construction of a Syria–Turkey Friendship Dam was started in 2011 but postponed because of

2352-436: Was founded for the same purpose. At this time, the Far East was known as the "Upper Levant". In early 19th-century travel writing , the term sometimes incorporated certain Mediterranean provinces of the Ottoman Empire , as well as independent Greece (and especially the Greek islands ). In 19th-century archaeology, it referred to overlapping cultures in this region during and after prehistoric times, intending to reference

2401-529: Was only known from Lake Amik, while the cyprinid Jordan himri was found nowhere else in Turkey. With the draining of the lake, the endemic bird and fish species have become extinct; the region's biodiversity was further harmed by the fact that one of the few similar habitats, Lake Hula in northern Israel , was also drained in the 1950s. Draining and reclamation of areas around the lake commenced in 1940, in order to free land for growing cotton and to eliminate malaria . A major drainage project, channeling

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