Yarkon River
| Yarkon River | |
| River | |
 |
|
| Country | Israel |
|---|---|
| Cities | Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, Rosh HaAyin |
| Source | Tel Afek |
| - location | near Rosh Ha'ayin, Central District, Israel |
| Mouth | Mediterranean Sea |
| - location | Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv District, Israel |
| - coordinates | 32°5′45″N 34°46′48″E / 32.09583°N 34.78000°ECoordinates: 32°5′45″N 34°46′48″E / 32.09583°N 34.78000°E |
| Length | 27.5 km (17 mi) |
The Yarkon River, also Yarqon River (Hebrew: נחל הירקון, Nahal HaYarkon; Arabic: نهر العوجا, Nahr al-Auja), is a river in central Israel. The source of the Yarkon ("Greenish" in Hebrew) is at Tel Afek (Antipatris), north of Petah Tikva. It flows west through Gush Dan and Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park into the Mediterranean Sea. Its Arabic name, al-Auja, means "the meandering". The Yarkon is the largest coastal river in Israel, at 27.5 km in length.
The Yarkon formed the southern border of the vilayet of Beirut during the late Ottoman period.
The Arabic name of the river, al-Auja ("the meandering one"), is shared with another small stream that flows into the Jordan Valley north of Jericho. During World War I this coincidence led to the term of "the line of the two Aujas" referring to a strategic line connecting the two river valleys and taken by the expeditionary forces of General Allenby during his early 1918 advance against the Ottoman army.
In the Mandatory period, the British government granted to Pinhas Rutenberg's Jaffa Electric Company exclusive rights to generate, distribute, and sell electricity in the District of Jaffa. These rights were delivered through the “Auja Concession”, which was formally signed on September 12, 1921. The Concession had authorized the company to generate electricity by means of hydroelectric turbines that would exploit the water power of the Yarkon River to supply electricity to the administrative District of Jaffa. The district comprised Jaffa, the oldest and at the time still most important town in the area, the fast growing town of Tel Aviv north of it, and other smaller locations. Yet the plan to generate electricity by hydroelectric means never materialized, and instead the company designed and built a powerhouse that produced electricity by means of diesel-fueled engines.
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Wikipedia