The Litani River (Arabic: نهر الليطاني / ALA-LC: Nahr al-Līṭānī; classical name: Leontes, from the Greek word for "lions" ) is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley valley, west of Baalbek, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Exceeding 140 km in length, the Litani River is the longest river in Lebanon and provides an average annual flow estimated at 920 million cubic meters. The waters of the Litani both originate and flow entirely within the borders of Lebanon. It provides a major source for water supply, irrigation and hydroelectricity both within Southern Lebanon, and the country as a whole.
Sections of its lower reaches were under Israeli control during 1978 and from 1982 to 2000.
Read more about Litani River: Southern Flow, Qasimiyeh, Litani River Dam, The Litani River Authority
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“At sundown, leaving the river road awhile for shortness, we went by way of Enfield, where we stopped for the night. This, like most of the localities bearing names on this road, was a place to name which, in the midst of the unnamed and unincorporated wilderness, was to make a distinction without a difference, it seemed to me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)