The Pinarus River () is a small stream in southern

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

near today's

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

—

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

border. It was famous in antiquity as the site of the First Battle of Issus, where

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

defeated

Darius III of Persia Darius III ( ; ; – 330 BC) was the thirteenth and last Achaemenid King of Kings of Persia, reigning from 336 BC to his death in 330 BC. Contrary to his predecessor Artaxerxes IV Arses, Darius was a distant member of the Achaemenid dynasty. D ...

. Ancient sources describe it as being near a small coastal village or town which straddled the stream. The river was said to run red with blood after Alexander the Great, leading his elite

Companion cavalry The Companions (, , ''hetairoi'') were the elite heavy cavalry of the Macedonian army from the time of King Philip II of Macedon, achieving their greatest prestige under Alexander the Great, and regarded as the first or among the first shock ca ...

turned the right flank of the Persians, smashed the center, and routed the Persian forces personally led by Darius III of Persia, who subsequently fled the field in a panic. Speculation on the location of the Pinarus has been raging for over 80 years. It was formerly believed it to be the Deli Çay, but the distances measured by Alexander's

bematist Bematist (), plural bematists or bematistae (), meaning 'step measurer' (from βῆμα ''bema'', meaning 'step, pace'), were specialists in ancient Greece and ancient Egypt who measured distances by pacing. Measurements of Alexander's bemat ...

s and observations of the local topography, as compared to ancient descriptions, indicate that the Pinarus is actually the Payas River. Nicholas G. L. Hammond, "Alexander's Charge at the Battle of Issus in 333 B.C.", ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'' 41:4:395-406 (1992) The Issos River at approx. 36.30 east by 36.60 north is the geographical point that the battle is named after. The river starts in the hills and flows approx. due west to the coast.

Notes

Rivers of Turkey {{MEast-hist-stub