Abana River - Barada

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The Barada (Arabic: بردى‎ / ALA-LC: Baradá; Greek: Chrysorrhoas) is the main river of Damascus, the capital city of Syria. It flows through the spring of ‘Ayn Fījah (عين فيجة), about 27 km north west of Damascus in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, but its source is Lake Barada, located at about 8 km from Zabadani. The Barada descends through a steep, narrow gorge named "Rabwe" before it arrives at Damascus, where it divides into seven branches that irrigate the oasis of Ghouta (الغوطة). The 'Barada' name is thought to derive from 'barid', i.e. 'cold'.

Pharpar River

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Pharpar (or Pharphar in the Douay-Rheims Bible) is a biblical river in Syria. It is the less important of the two rivers of Damascus mentioned in the Book of Kings (2 Kings 5:12), now generally identified with the A`waj (i.e. crooked), though if the reference to Damascus be limited to the city, as in the Arabic version of the Old Testament, Pharpar would be the modern Taura. In the early Baedeker Guides it was identified as the Al-Sabirani, a fairly downstream tributary of the A`waj.

Lebanon Mountains

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Mount Lebanon (Arabic: جبل لبنان‎; Jabal Lubnān, Syriac: ܛܘܪ ܠܒܢܢ; ṭūr lébnon), as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about 170 km (110 mi), parallel to the Mediterranean coast with the highest peak, Qurnat as Sawda', at 3,088 m (10,131 ft). Lebanon has historically been defined by these mountains, which provided protection for the local population.

Florida, Missouri

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Sam Clemens was born in Florida, MO in November of 1835 when the population of the village was exactly 100.  His family had moved there the previous May or June with the hope that a railway line would be extended from St. Joseph and that the Salt River would be made navigable to the Mississippi.  Neither happened.  The family moved to Hannibal, 35 miles to the northeast, in 1839.

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