This small river rises from springs north of Şanlıurfa, but already runs dry at Harran, before it can reach the Balikh.

Numerous now dried-up wells in the old city of Harran suggest that the water table may have been significantly higher in the past.

Ar-Ruha' and another prominent ancient town of the Balikh valley, Harran (Roman Carrhae), figure in the Muslim and Jewish traditions respectively in the stories of Abraham and other Hebrew patriarchs (and matriarchs.)

European travellers of the 19th century noted the presence of archaeological remains in the Balikh Valley, but the first investigations were not carried out until 1938, when the English archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan (husband of author Agatha Christie) spent six weeks investigating five archaeological sites dating from the seventh to the second millennium BCE.

The site provided a well-stratified material culture that allowed analysis of the settlement history of the Balikh valley.

Incidentally, the Turkish archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe is located on a hill directly north of and overlooking the Harran Plains that feed the Balikh river system.