Damascus is the gift of Baradā, the ancient Abana or Chrysorrhoas (literally "streaming with gold"). This river gives birth to six branches as it enters al-Ġūṭā via ar-Rabwā Gorge: two in the north (Yazīd and Tōrā) and four in the south (Bānīās, Qanawāt, Mazzāwī, and Dārānī). Three of those branches, or canals, irrigate the city per se: Tōrā, Bānīās, and Qanawāt. Of those three, Qanawāt is the most important.
Qanawāt is the main source of running water to the city of Damascus. It was constructed under the Romans, though its distribution was likely adjusted more than once throughout the last two millennia.
We can follow its course from west to east as it passes at approximately 500 meters south of and parallel to Baradā, heading towards the highest part of the city. It runs through al-Ḥamīdīyyā Casern (later the Syrian University and still later Damascus University) and Qanawāt Street all the way to the city center as well as the quarters located in the south and southeast. Before entering intramural Damascus, it gives rise to several branches before and after al-Ḥīǧāz Station towards the neighborhoods of Bāb Srīǧā and as-Suwayqā.
Water allocations differ from one quarter to another and, as a rule, diminish as we head east. Consequently, Christian and Jewish quarters receive less water than do Muslim ones, an explanation, according to Wulzinger and Watzinger, as to why minorities were assigned the areas they currently inhabit. The author cites, for example, the plight of the Greek Orthodox community that occupied a part of the Miʾḏanat aš-Šaḥm neighborhood, who had to rely on wells to compensate for the lack of running water. Water supply has been prioritized from time immemorial: the most privileged recipients are, of course, the mosques, first and foremost the ʾUmayyād's. Public baths would be next. Everyone else had to compete for the rest according to his status and influence.
Richard Lodoïs Thoumin. Géographie humaine de la Syrie centrale. Librairie Ernest Leroux, Paris 1936.
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