Pharpar (or Pharphar in the
Douay–Rheims Bible
The Douay–Rheims Bible (, ), also known as the Douay–Rheims Version, Rheims–Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D–R, DRB, and DRV, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by member ...
) is a biblical
river
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
in Syria. It is the less important of the two rivers of
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
mentioned in the
Book of Kings (2 Kings 5:12), now generally identified with the
Nahr al-Awaj, also called Awaj (literally, 'crooked'), although if the reference to Damascus is limited to the city, as in the
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
version of the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
, Pharpar would be the modern Taura.
In the early
Baedeker Guides it was identified as the Al-Sabirani, a fairly downstream tributary of the Awaj. The stream runs from west to east, flowing from
Hermon south of Damascus, and like its companion
Abana River travels across the plain of Damascus, which owes to them much of its fertility. The river loses itself in marshes, or ''Lakes of the Marj'', as they are called, on the borders of the great
Arabian Desert.
[
John MacGregor, who gives a description of it in his book ''Rob Roy on the ]Jordan
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
'', affirmed that as a work of hydraulic engineering
Hydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive use of gravity as the motive force to cause the move ...
, the system and construction of the canals, by which the Pharpar and Abana were used for irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
, might be considered as one of the most complete and extensive in the world.[ In the Bible, Naaman exclaims that the Abana and Pharpar are greater than all the waters of ]Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
(2 Kings 5:12).
See also
* Amana (bible)
References
*
Rivers of Syria
Hebrew Bible rivers
Geography of Damascus
{{Syria-river-stub