Ain Aata 2.72

Ain Aata, Ain Ata, 'Ain 'Ata or Ayn Aata is a village and municipality situated southwest of Rashaya, 99km south-east of Beirut, in the Rashaya District of the Beqaa Governorate in Lebanon.The name is thought to mean "gift spring". There is a remarkably cold spring in the area.The village was suggested by Charles William Meredith van de Velde to be the ancient site of Beth-Anath or Anatha mentioned in the Bible Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges as a land given to Naphtali, where the local canaanites were subjugated to forced labor by the elite of the Israelite tribe. Eusebius in his work Onomasticon, placed it 9mi from Dora (Tanturah), however this falls outside the territory of Naphtali. Beth-Anath has been translated to mean "temple of Anat", a canaanite goddess linked to a Sumerian predecessor called Ninhursag.