Coele-Syria

Coele-Syria (from Greek Koilē Suria, meaning hollow Syria) was the ancient name for the fertile valley between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountain ranges, roughly corresponding to the modern Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. The name described the deep trough of land between the two parallel mountain chains. This region was strategically important as the corridor connecting Egypt and Mesopotamia, and its control was contested throughout the Hellenistic period between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires.

Though the term does not appear explicitly in the canonical Old Testament, it is prominent in the deuterocanonical books (1 and 2 Maccabees) as the designation for the province under Seleucid rule that included both this valley and at times a broader southern Syrian territory. The region's agricultural richness, watered by the Orontes and Litani rivers, made it a prize possession throughout antiquity. Its connection to the broader Syrian geographic context and its role in the Maccabean period links it to the political background of the intertestamental era that shaped Second Temple Judaism.