The Pinarus River is a small mountain spring fed stream famous in antiquity as the site of the First Battle of Issus, near a small coastal village or town which was reported to straddle the stream which by similar sources, was said to run red with blood after Alexander the Great leading his elite Companion cavalry turned the right flank of the Persians, smashed the center and routed the Persian forces personally led by Darius III of Persia

Darius III of Persia

Darius III , also known by his given name of Codomannus, was the last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia from 336 BC to 330 BC....

, who subsequently fled the field in a panic.

Speculation on the location of the Pinarus has been raging for over 80 years. Older historians believed it to be the Deli Tchai river, but historians N.G.L. Hammond and A.M. Devine have made convincing claims that the Pinarus is actually the Payas river

Payas River

The Payas River, in southern Anatolia near today's Turkey—Syria border, is thought during recent modern times to be the famous Pinarus river of antiquity, where Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia in the First Battle of Issus, and the likely site of the second and third battles...

, the latter using eye-witness description of the battle, mainly by the historian of Alexander, Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...

, compared with a personal examination of the riverine terrain, which may not have drastically changed since antiquity.

The Issos River at approx. 36.30 East by 36.60 North is the geographical point that the battle is named after. The river starts in the hills and flows approx. 40 miles due west to the coast.