A bust of Emperor Constantius II from Syria. Ammianus was born between 325 and 330 in the Greek-speaking East, possibly at Antioch on the Orontes.

During this time the Kingdom of Yamkhad on the Euphrates, and of Qatna on the Orontes, were important city states of the Syrian region.

Seeing that confrontation was unavoidable, Saladin prepared for battle, taking up a superior position on the hills by the gorge of the Orontes River.

In the latter area he founded a new capital at Antioch on the Orontes, a city he named after his father.

Antioch on the Orontes (; Anṭiokia ; Hebrew: אנטיוכיה, antiyokhya ; ; Antiok ; ; Arabic: انطاکیه, Anṭākiya ; also Syrian Antioch ) was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River.

Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, 1976: " Antioch on the Orontes ( Antaky ), Turkey "

At this time the Canaanite area seemed divided between two confederacies, one centred upon Tel Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley, the second on the more northerly city of Kadesh on the Orontes River.

Villages in the south of Syria ( Hauran, Jabal al-Druze ), the north-east ( the Syrian island ) and the Orontes River basin depend mostly on agriculture, mainly grain, vegetables and fruits.

At the time of Seleucus II's death, the empire of the Seleucids, with its capital at Antioch on the Orontes, stretches from the Aegean Sea to the borders of India and includes southern Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Persia, and northern Syria.

His badly decomposed body was brought back to England on board the British troopship HMS Orontes and buried in Chislehurst.

* Seleucia ad Belum, later Seleucopolis, on the Orontes, Syria

The ancient town of Riblah ( meaning " fruitful "), was located on the northern frontier of Israel, 35 miles north-east of Baalbec, and 10 or 12 south of Lake Homs, on the eastern bank of the Orontes, in a wide and fertile plain.

Necho soon captured Kadesh on the Orontes and moved forward, joining forces with Ashur-uballit and together they crossed the Euphrates and laid siege to Harran.

Posidonius, nicknamed " the Athlete ", was born to a Greek family in Apamea, a Hellenistic city on the river Orontes in northern Syria, and probably died in Rome or Rhodes.

A scene from it is perhaps depicted in mosaics from Antioch on the Orontes

A more or less permanent border between Egypt and Mitanni seems to have existed near Qatna on the Orontes River ; Ugarit was part of Egyptian territory.

After the campaign had ended in defeat, Antiochus was forced to flee but drowned in the river Orontes while trying to cross it on horseback.

On November 25, the regiment set sail for Ireland on board the troopship Orontes.

In Egyptian inscriptions Amar and Amurru ( Amorites ) are applied strictly to the more northerly mountain region east of Phoenicia, extending to the Orontes.

Their allies included Kizuwatna in southeastern Anatolia, Mukish which stretched between Ugarit and Quatna west of the Orontes to the sea, and the Niya which controlled the east bank of the Orontes from Alalah down through Aleppo, Ebla and Hama to Qatna and Kadesh.

The most accepted explanation is that the name for the, then Syrian ( now Turkish ), Hellenistic city of Antioch on the Orontes ( Arabic: Antākiyyah, today Antakya ) was used, as the region known as the Coffee Zone in Colombia, in which many towns and cities are named after cities in the middle east, has a very strong Judeo-Arabic influence, both demographically and culturally ; Additionally the city in mention played a significant role in the development of early Christian communities thus religiously important for Roman Catholic Spaniard conquerors.

The border to the east with Syria was roughly along the An-Nusayriyah Mountains and the Orontes River running from north to south.

He did not, however, attack Antioch itself ; he was content with capturing all Antiochene territory east of the Orontes and leaving a rump state around the city, which in any case soon fell under the suzerainty of the Byzantine Empire.

Tancred's victory over Radwan of Aleppo at the Battle of Artah in 1105 allowed the Latin principality to recover some its territories east of the Orontes River.

Tell Ta ' yinat is a low-lying ancient occupation mound on the east bank at the bend of the ancient Orontes river, in the Hatay province of present southeastern Turkey about 25 kilometers south east of Antakya ( ancient Antioch ).

Its border on the west is the Orontes Valley, and its border on the east is the Euphrates.

The remains of Babylas were reinterred in a church dedicated to him on the other side of the River Orontes.

The pharaoh quickly sent urgent messengers to hasten the arrival of the Ptah and Seth divisions of his army, which were still some distance away on the far side of the River Orontes.

The Biqa Valley is watered by two rivers that rise in the watershed near Baalbek: the Orontes flowing north ( in Arabic it is called Nahr al Asi, " the Rebel River ", because this direction is unusual ), and the Litani flowing south into the hill region of the southern Biqa Valley, where it makes an abrupt turn to the west in southern Lebanon and is thereafter called the Al Qasmiyah River.

Western Neo-Aramaic probably is the surviving remnant of a Western Middle Aramaic dialect which was spoken throughout the Orontes Valley area and into the Anti-Lebanon in the 6th century.

The ancient town of Qarqar has generally been associated with the archaeological site of Tell Qarqur, located in the Orontes River Valley of western Syria.

Qutuz drew the Mongol army into an ambush near the Orontes River, routed them at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 and captured and executed Kitbuqa ( see Qutuz ).

Continuing his march after having sacked Qarqar, he encountered the allied forces near the Orontes River.

There have been several Battles of Antioch fought in or near the Syrian city of Antioch due to its strategic location on the Orontes River:

It lay near the mouth of the Orontes not far from Mount Casius, and functioned as the commercial and naval seaport of Antioch on the Orontes ( now Antakya ).

In the north, Lebanon, bordered by the Litani river to the watershed of the Orontes river, was known by the Egyptians as upper Retenu.

Two rivers originate in the valley: the Orontes ( Asi ), which flows north into Syria and Turkey, and the Litani, which flows south and then west to the Mediterranean Sea.

Geologically, the Biqa is the medial part of a depression that extends north to the western bend of the Orontes River in Syria and south to Jordan through Al Arabah to Al Aqabah, the eastern arm of the Red Sea.

The Orontes continues to flow north into Syria and eventually reaches the Mediterranean in Turkey.

Passing north of the modern Antakya ( ancient Antioch ) the Orontes plunges southwest into a gorge ( compared by the ancients to Tempe ), and falls 150 feet ( 50 m ) in 10 miles ( 16 km ) to the sea just south of the little port of Samandağı ( former Suedia, in antiquity Seleucia Pieria ), after a total course of 150 miles ( 240 km ).

Mainly unnavigable and of little use for irrigation, the Orontes derives its historical importance solely from the convenience of its valley for traffic from north to south ; roads from the north and northeast, converging at Antioch, follow the course of the stream up to Homs where they build the Al-Rastan dam, where they fork to Damascus and to Syria and the south ; and along its valley have passed the armies and traffic bound to and from Egypt in all ages.

From the 15th century BC onward, the term Amurru is usually applied to the region extending north of Canaan as far as Kadesh on the Orontes.

Some Lebanese sources, such as Giuseppe Simone Assemani and Maronite bishop Yusef al-Dibs believe he was buried Arethusa or modern-day al-Rastan along the Orontes River in Syria, while others like Jesuit priest Henri Lammens claim he is buried in Brad village to the north of Aleppo.

Thutmose I, Thutmose III and his son and coregent Amenhotep II fought battles from Megiddo north to the Orontes River, including the conflict with Kadesh.

Farther north, the Arameans were in possession of Hamath on the Orontes and were soon to become strong enough to dissociate with the Neo-Hittite block.