Abstract: An energy balanced cross-layer multi-path routing algorithm (EBCLMRA) is proposed for ad hoc wireless networks. EBCLMRA combines the cross-layer information of networks to find several node-disjoint multiple-path routings. The sending nodes in the path select sending power adaptively to reach the next hop according to the distance between the sending and receiving nodes. The algorithm can balance the energy consumption of node in the networks, reduce congestion among nodes, and prolong the life time of wireless ad hoc networks. The simulation results show that EBCLMRA has better performance on prolonging the life time of networks, reducing average delay and improving the throughput compared with SMR (split multipath routing)and AOMDV (Ad hoc on-demand multipath distance vector routing).