Ka'am, Wadi Caam or Wadi Ka'am (Cinyps) is a small

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

Tripolitana Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

, site of a failed Greek attempt to build a city under the leadership of Spartan

Dorieus Dorieus (died c.510 BC; grc-gre, Δωριεύς) was a Spartan prince of the Agiad dynasty who is mentioned several times in Herodotus. The second son of Anaxandridas II, he was the younger half-brother of Cleomenes I and the elder full brother ...

Sources

The source of the river are in the 80 km long Wadi Taraglat but they are all located at the coastal end of the Wadi in a part of the Wadi called Wadi Caam, whereas

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known for ...

had erroneously claimed that the source was near the Hill of Graces some 260 km inland.

History

The springs in Wadi Caam were the source of the water used in the Hadrianic baths of

Leptis Magna Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by other names in antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda in the Mediterranean. Originally a 7th-centuryBC Phoenician foundation, it was grea ...

with the water diversion scheme using the aqueduct built by

Quintus Servillius Candidus Quintus is a male given name derived from ''Quintus'', a common Latin forename (''praenomen'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Quintus derives from Latin word ''quintus'', meaning "fifth". Quintus is an English masculine given name a ...

in 119-120A.D. The Greeks under Dorieus of

Sparta Sparta (Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referred ...

who was said to be angry because Cleomenes was chosen to be king of Sparta ahead of him left the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge whi ...

to found his own colony He chose to found his colony at the mouth of the Cinyps. After three years, around 515B.C. they were expelled by the

Carthaginians The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...

from Leptis Magna, in alliance with local Libyan tribes. It was said to be the home of the Libyan tribe of the Macae, who were used as

mercenaries A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any ...

by the

. In Greek mythology one of the combatants in the

Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ha ...

Guneus In Greek mythology, the name Guneus (; Ancient Greek: Γουνεὐς derived from ''gounos'' "fruitful land") may refer to: *Guneus, a man from Pheneus and father of Laonome, wife of Alcaeus. Through his daughter, he was the grandfather of Amph ...

went to

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Su ...

after the war where he settled near the Cinyps River, although other myths have Guneus drowning at sea.'' Bibliotheca'', Epitome of Book 4, 3.11ff.; 6.15.

Tzetzes John Tzetzes ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης, Iōánnēs Tzétzēs; c. 1110, Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who is known to have lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He was able to pr ...

Lycophron Lycophron (; grc-gre, Λυκόφρων ὁ Χαλκιδεύς; born about 330–325 BC) was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, sophist, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem ''Alexandra'' is attributed (perhaps falsely). Life and ...

, 899 Archaeologists have uncovered a Greek necropolis in Wadi Caam which dates to the 3rd century BC, it consists of a series of stone, box-shaped urns with the lids in the shape of a sloping roof and containing ashes and bones, as well as various types of ceramics.

References

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