Lake Semechonitis (Huleh)

Lake Semechonitis — the classical Greek name preserved by William of Tyre — was a shallow, papyrus-fringed lake fed by the springs at Dan and Banias, discharging south into the Jordan above the Sea of Galilee.

It lay inside the Lordship of Toron, and its marshy shoreline bordered the lands of the lesser fief of Maron. The high road from Damascus to Acre skirted its northern bank, guarded from the heights by the Templar castle of Chastel Neuf (Hunin) and the outpost of Chastellet at Jacob's Ford, which Saladin destroyed in 1179.

The lake was largely drained between 1951 and 1958 for farmland; only the restored Huleh Nature Reserve now hints at the reed-choked landscape the Crusaders knew.