Beirut River

Beirut River (Arabic: نهر بيروت‎‎, Nahr Bayrūt) is a river in Lebanon. The river runs east to west, then curves north, separating the city of Beirut from its eastern suburbs, primarily Bourj Hammoud and Sin el Fil. According to popular legend, St. George slew the dragon in a spot near the mouth of the river.

The river flows from snow drains and springs on the western slopes of Mount Kneisseh and the southern end of Mount Sannine near the towns of Hammana and Falougha, emptying at Beirut's northern Mediterranean coast, east of the Port of Beirut.

During the Stone Age, Beirut was two islands in the delta of the Beirut River, but over the centuries, the river silted up, and the two islands were connected into one land mass. The right bank of the Beirut River, southwest of the mountain resort town of Beit Mery at an altitude of approximately 125 metres (410 ft) above sea level is an archeological site, "Beit Mery I," that was found by Jesuit Father Dillenseger who determined it to be an Acheulean site; the archaeological finds from the site were donated to the French Faculty of Medicine at the Saint Joseph University.

In antiquity, the river was known as Magoras, and it was the site of the worship of the god of Heliopolis. The Romans built an aqueduct, which had a 240-meter bridge crossing the river, to supply Beirut (Berytus) with water.

It is believed that Fakhreddine, Lebanon's Renaissance prince, built or repaired a bridge of seven arches on the river that was a streamlet in summer but swelled into a raging torrent in winter.

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