The location of the battle of Qarqar is usually given as right in the vicinity of Tell Asharneh on the banks of the Orontes River.

Four locations are suggested for towns named Aphek.
1. A city north of Sidon/Sayda on map. (Joshua 13:4)
2. A town assigned to the tribe of Asher but never captured from the Canaanites, located just SE of Acco'Akko (Josh. 19:30; Judges 1:31).
3. A town on the Plain of Sharon NE of Joppa, whose king was killed by Joshua (Josh. 12:18). See Stephen Feldman, `Return to Aphek' in BAR, Sep/Oct 2002, p. 52-59. The article shows the Turkish fortress as well as the Egyptian governor's residence and a Akkadian cuneiform request letter of the Ugarit official `Takuhlinu' to `Haya, the great man' for a shipment of wheat and a bronze dagger found in the residence.
4. A town between Shunem and Jezreel, whose soldiers fought in the war between Saul and the Philistines (1.Sam. 28:4; 29:1,11; 31:1) This may have been the town where Ben-Hadad fought Ahab (1.Kings 20:26-30) and where Jehoash of Israel would defeat the Syrians (2.Kings 13:14-19.

The location of `Irqata' known from the EA letters is not known but we would suspect it was possibly located just east of the Sea of Galilee near the Yarmuk River.

The Khabur River flows from the Amanus Mtn range, southern Turkey south and empties into the Orontos River near Antioch, ca. W36.0 & N37.0.

Absalom fled to Talmai, the son of Ammihud, King of Geshur, an Aramean kingdom located just east of Maacah, between Mt. Hermon and the district of Bashan, 2. Sam. 3:3; 13:37. Bashan would then be at the easterly foot of Mt. Hermon.