'A handbook of Syria (including Palestine). London: Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June 1919' [‎210v] (425/738)

414 RIVER SYSTEMS OF NORTHERN SYRIA
its upper supply runs to waste, but with a more complete
system of irrigation the area of its usefulness could be greatly
extended. The Barada, besides being of much greater volume
and more adaptable to irrigation, is furnished with an
elaborate system of canals which assure a generous supply
of water to some 130 sq. miles of the most productive land
in Syria. It is besides utilized for electric power and water
• supply to the city of Damascus. Of all the rivers of Syria, the
Barada perhaps lends itself most effectively to irrigation.
Nahr el-‘Awaj is formed by the junction of two streams
near Sa‘sa‘ on the eastern slopes of Hermon. One of these
comes from above Beit Jenn, through which village it flows
in a wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. with lofty sides of naked white rock, the stream
being fringed with poplar, walnut, and apricot trees. Below
the village it is augmented by ‘Ain Beit Jenn, a large spring
on the r. bank, whence it continues in a deep channel to its
confluence with the other and larger branch, the ‘Arni. This
latter stream is formed by several small springs in a gorge which
penetrates to the centre of Hermon and flows in a deep channel
past ‘Arni, and Kefr Hawar and thence by a winding course
to the confluence near Sa‘sa‘. Close to their junction the two
streams are crossed by the new carriage-road from Jisr Banat
Ya‘qub to Damascus.
The trunk, now named N. el-‘Awaj or N. Zabirani, flows for
about 6 miles in a north-easterly direction, having on the r.
an undulating plain thickly strewn with basalt boulders, and
on the 1. a level tract where limestone takes the place of
volcanic rock. The whole district is forbidding and monoto
nous. After turning east the stream flows in a tortuous and
very deep channel to Kisweh, passing on the 1. the low range
of J. el-Aswad, between which and the stream there is a fertile
plain J mile wide. In this part of its course it is crossed at
Kisweh by the Damascus road. Continuing along the valley
between J. el-Aswad and J. Mani‘, the stream is crossed by
the Hejaz railway and, after sweeping round the last high
peaks of Mani‘, winds through the plain and enters the lake,
Bahret el-Hijaneh, near the village of Hijaneh. In summer -