ORONTES  , the

ancient name of the chief Syrian river, also called DRACO, TYPHON and Maus, the last a native form, from whose revival, or continuous employment in native speech, has proceeded the modern name `Asa ("rebel"), which is variously interpreted by Arabs as referring to the stream's impetuosity, to its unproductive channel, or to the fact that it flows away from Mecca . The Orontes rises in the great springs of Labweh on the east side of the Buka'a, or inter-Lebanon district, very near the fountains of the southward-flowing Litani, and it runs due north, parallel with the coast, falling 2000 ft. through a rocky gorge . Leaving this it expands into the Lake of Horns, having been dammed back in antiquity . The valley now widens out into the rich district of Hamah (Hamath-Epiphaneia), below which lie the broad meadow-lands of Ghab, containing the sites of ancient Apamea and Larissa . This central Orontes valley ends at the rocky barrier of Jisr al-Hadid, where the river is diverted to the west, and the plain of Antioch opens . Two large tributaries from the N., the Afrin and Kara Su, here reach it through the former Lake of Antioch, which is now drained through an artificial channel (Nahr al-Kowsit) . Passing N. of the modern Antakia (Antioch) the Orontes plunges S.W. into a gorge (compared by the ancients to Tempe), and falls 150 ft. in to m. to the sea just south of the little port of Suedia (anc . Seleucia Pieriae), after a total course of 17o m . Mainly unnavigable and of little use for irrigation, the Orontes derives its historical importance solely from the convenience of its valley for traffic from N. to S . Roads from N. and N.E., con-verging at Antioch, follow the course of the stream up to Horns, where they fork to Damascus and to Coele-Syria and the S.; and along its valley have passed the armies and traffic bound to and from Egypt in all ages . (See ANTIOCH and Holm) (D . G .