Abana (or Amanah, classical Chrysorrhoas) is the more important of the two rivers of Damascus, Syria mentioned by the Book of Kings (2 Kings 5:12), and is now generally identified with the Barada (i.e. cold). Together with its companion river, the Pharpar, the stream runs from west to east across the plain of Damascus, which owes to them much of its fertility, and the stream loses itself in marshes, or Meadow lakes, as they are called, on the borders of the great Arabian desert. As the Barada rises in the Anti-Libanus, and escapes from the mountains through a narrow gorge, its waters spread out fan-like, in canals or rivers, the name of one of which, the Banias river, retains a trace of Abana.