BELUS, now Nahr Naman, a small river of Phœnicia, which enters the sea close to Acre, the ancient Ptolemais. Here the discovery of the manufacture of glass is said to have been accidentally made by some shipwrecked mariners who kindled a fire on its banks. See Pliny, xxxvi. 26. Reland conjectures that the name Βήλος may be the origin of the Greek ἰδός or ἄλος, glass.