Queiq

Queiq River in downtown Aleppo, 2011

The Queiq[1] (Modern Standard Arabic: قُوَيْقٌ, Quwayq, [quˈwajq]; northern Syrian Arabic: ʾWēʾ, [ʔwɛːʔ]), with many variant spellings,[5] it was known to the Greeks in antiquity as the Belus in (Greek: Βήλος, Bēlos),[3] the Chalos and also known in English as the Aleppo River is an endorheic river and valley of the Aleppo Governorate, Syria and Turkey. It is a 129 kilometres (80 mi)-long river that flows through the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. It arises from the southern Aintab plateau in southeastern Turkey. The Akpınar River in the Kilis plain is one of the headwaters of the Queiq. The former town of Qinnasrin lay on its banks.[1] It partly flows along the western rim of the Matah Depression.[6] The valley has been occupied for thousands of years and in ancient times the Queiq valley was noted for its flint industries and pottery.[7]

The river dried up completely in the late 1960s, due to irrigation projects on the Turkish side of the border. Recently, water from the Euphrates has been diverted to revive the dead river, and thus revive agriculture in the plains south of Aleppo, but many Syrians remain bitter towards the Turks over their handling of the river.[8] To revive the river and build irrigation, the Tal Hasel Water Pumping Station was opened in 2008 in rural Aleppo.[9] The station was restored and made operational again in July 2022, after "it went out of service in 2012 after the occupation of the area by terrorist organizations, which completely destroyed the plant."[9]

  1. ^ a b Phenix, Robert R. (20 December 2008). The sermons on Joseph of Balai of Qenneshrin: rhetoric and interpretation in fifth-century Syriac literature. Mohr Siebeck. p. 53. ISBN 978-3-16-149676-9. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  2. ^ Liverani, Mario (1995). Neo-Assyrian geography. Università di Roma, Dipartimento di scienze storiche, archeologiche e antropologiche dell'Antichità. p. 121. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  3. ^ a b Cohen, Getzel M. (2006), Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa, Hellenistic Culture and Society, Vol. 46, Los Angeles: University of California Press, p. 145, ISBN 9780520931022.
  4. ^ "Aleppo's river of death – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs". Globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com. 2013-03-11. Archived from the original on March 13, 2013. Retrieved 2014-08-24.
  5. ^ Including Qoueiq,[2] Qoueiq,[3] Kweik,[4] and Quweiq.
  6. ^ Wagner, Wolfgang (25 July 2011). Groundwater in the Arab Middle East. Springer. p. 165. ISBN 978-3-642-19350-7. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  7. ^ Peregrine, Peter Neal; Ember, Melvin; inc, Human Relations Area Files (2002). Encyclopedia of Prehistory: South and Southwest Asia. Springer. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-306-46262-7. Retrieved 30 September 2011. {{cite book}}: |last3= has generic name (help)
  8. ^ Gren, Erik (2002). Orientalia Suecana. Almquist & Wiksell Periodical Co. p. 37. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  9. ^ a b Shaza Qreima (8 July 2022). "President al-Assad inaugurates Tal Hasel water pumping plant, Aleppo". SANA. Retrieved 10 July 2022.