Nahr al-Kabir

The Nahr al-Kabir, also known in Syria as al-Nahr al-Kabir al-Janoubi (an-Nahr al-Kabīr al-Janūbī, lit. 'the southern great river', in contrast with the Nahr al-Kabir al-Shamali) or in Lebanon simply as the Kebir, is a river in Syria and Lebanon flowing into the Mediterranean Sea at Arida. The river is 77.8 km (48.3 mi) long, and drains a watershed of 954 km2 (368 mi2). Its headwaters are at the Ain as-Safa spring in Lebanon and it flows through the Homs Gap in the Orontes River Valley of southern Syria. The river forms the northern part of the Lebanon–Syria border at the Jebel Ansariyah mountains in Syria. In antiquity, the river was known as Eleutherus (Greek Eleutheros, Eleuteris lit. 'free'). It defined the border between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires during much of the 3rd century BCE. The river is mentioned by Josephus and in 1 Maccabees 11:7 and 12:30. Due to its shallowness, the river was a key site of the Syrian refugee crisis since 2011. It was a location for people smuggling and drug (especially captagon) trafficking. It flooded in 2019, inundating Lebanon’s largest Syrian refugee camp. Later, many Syrians returned across the river fleeing the Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–2024). River crossings were bombed by Israel in November 2024. After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, thousands cro

Flows through: Syria.

River data from Wikidata (CC0); lengths normalised to a common unit.