View source for Nahal Paran

{{short description|Occasionally dry riverbed in the Negev Desert and the Sinai Peninsula}}
[[File:NachalParan1.jpg|thumb|Nahal Paran]]
[[File:Nahal Paran Estuary.jpg|thumb|Nahal Paran Estuary aerial photo]]
'''Nahal Paran''' ({{langx|he| נחל פארן||Paran Stream}}) is a [[seasonal stream]] in [[Egypt]]'s [[Sinai Peninsula]] and [[Israel]]'s [[Negev Desert]]. With a length of 150 kilometers, it is the third largest [[watercourse]] in [[Israel]] after the [[Jordan River]] and [[Yarmouk River]]. It is also the widest watercourse in Israel.
The association of the name "Paran Stream" with this specific [[wadi]] is a modern one. Israeli authorities have introduced the name "Paran Stream" by adopting it from the [[Paran Desert]] mentioned in the [[Hebrew Bible]]. However, the modern identification of the biblical Paran Desert with a specific part of the Sinai Peninsula might or might not be accurate.
==Hydrology==
The origin of the river is in the Paran Desert of the Sinai Peninsula, and it flows into the [[estuary]] of [[Nahal HaArava]]. Water flow exists only during flash floods.  This is the [[drainage basin]]'s largest river, with an area of thousands of square kilometers, creating broad planes that separate the Negev's high north and the [[Eilat mountains]] of the south.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wohl|first=Ellen E.|last2=Greenbaum|first2=Noam|last3=Schick|first3=Ascher P.|last4=Baker|first4=Victor R.|year=1994|doi=10.1002/esp.3290190102|title= Controls on bedrock channel incision along nahal paran, Israel|journal=[[Earth Surface Processes and Landforms]]|volume=19|issue=1|pages=1}}</ref>
In the past, during floods, like other major rivers in the Negev, Nahal paran would flood the Arava Road (the main road to [[Eilat]]), until the construction of a bridge over the river. The stream had the highest recorded flow in Israel of 1,150 cubic meters per second on 6 November 1970. In 2014, the record was broken by a flow of 1,280 cubic meters per second measured at Zin. For comparison, the average flow in the [[Jordan River]] is 16 cubic meters per second.
Ground water near the riverbed provides drinking water for communities in the [[Arava desert]]. This water has high salinity and undergoes [[desalination]].
==References==
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{{coord|30.3333|N|34.9686|E|source:wikidata|display=title}}
[[Category:Rivers of Israel]]
[[Category:Rivers of Egypt]]