AB'A.NAH (permanent).
This famous river has its source in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, near Zebdany, at a height of 1,149 ft., and wends its way 23 miles into and through the city of Damascus. Like the Pharpar, which also flows from the Anti-Lebanon, it divides into several branches on reaching the plains, two of which water the city, while the others irrigate the gardens and orchards. The largest stream is now called Barada. It has no "mouth" or convergence, but spreads over the plains, giving itself to the marsh of Bahret el Kibliyeh. A number of villages are dependent upon the Abanah for water. Damascus, "the oldest city in the world with a continuous history," and now having over 200,000 inhabitants, owes all to the Abanah - the river in which Naaman, the leper, preferred to bathe instead of the Jordan (2 Kings 5:12).