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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Lebanon
Index
Although the country is well watered and there are many rivers
and streams, there are no navigable rivers, nor is any one river
the sole source of irrigation water. Drainage patterns are
determined by geological features and climate. Although rainfall is
seasonal, most streams are perennial. Most rivers in Lebanon have
their origins in springs, which are often quite large. These
springs emerge from the permeable limestone strata cropping out at
the 915- to 1,524-meter level in the Lebanon Mountains. In the
Anti-Lebanon Mountains few springs emerge in this manner. Other
springs emerge from alluvial soil and join to form rivers. Whatever
their source, the rivers are fast moving, straight, and generally
cascade down narrow mountain canyons to the sea.
The Biqa Valley is watered by two rivers that rise in the
watershed near Baalbek: the Orontes flowing north (in Arabic it is
called Nahr al Asi, the Rebel River, because this direction is
unusual), and the Litani flowing south into the hill region of the
southern Biqa Valley, where it makes an abrupt turn to the west and
is thereafter called the Al Qasmiyah River. The Orontes continues
to flow north into Syria and eventually reaches the Mediterranean
in Turkey. Its waters, for much of its course, flow through a
channel considerably lower than the surface of the ground. The Nahr
Barada, which waters Damascus, has as its source a spring in the
Anti-Lebanon Mountains.
Smaller springs and streams serve as tributaries to the
principal rivers. Because the rivers and streams have such steep
gradients and are so fast moving, they are erosive instead of
depository in nature. This process is aided by the soft character
of the limestone that composes much of the mountains, the steep
slopes of the mountains, and the heavy rainstorms. The only
permanent lake is Buhayrat al Qirawn, about ten kilometers east of
Jazzin. There is one seasonal lake, fed by springs, on the eastern
slopes of the Lebanon Mountains near Yammunah, about forty
kilometers southeast of Tripoli.
Data as of December 1987
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