so fast-moving, that they were erosive instead of depository in nature. In their descent, both rivers had to cut through a basaltic dam, thereby creating an intermediate lake in antiquity; the Orontes has created the Lake of Homs; and the Jordan created Lake Hula (just north of the Sea of Galilee), which was all but drained during the 1950s. Both rivers have been mainly unnavigable throughout history; and both have seasonal flows that are unfavorable to the agricultural cycle, and thus they were