Tabqa Dam
Tabqa Dam | |
---|---|
![]() Tabqa Dam | |
Official name | سَدُّ الثَّوْرَةِ |
Country | Syria, controlled by Syrian Democratic Forces |
Location | Al-Thawrah District, Raqqa Governorate, Syria |
Coordinates | 35°52′20″N 38°34′00″E / 35.87222°N 38.56667°E |
Status | Operational |
Construction began | 1968 |
Opening date | 1973 |
Construction cost | US$340 million |
Dam and spillways | |
Type of dam | Earth-fill dam |
Impounds | Euphrates |
Height | 60 m (197 ft) |
Length | 4,500 m (14,764 ft) |
Width (crest) | 19 m (62 ft) |
Width (base) | 512 m (1,680 ft) |
Reservoir | |
Creates | Lake Assad |
Inactive capacity | 11.7 km3 (2.8 cu mi) |
Surface area | 610 km2 (236 sq mi) |
Power Station | |
Commission date | July 1973–8 March 1978 |
Turbines | 8 x 103 MW Kaplan-type |
Installed capacity | 824 MW |
The Tabqa Dam (Arabic: سَدُّ الطَّبْقَةِ, romanized: Sadd aṭ-Ṭabqah, Kurdish: Bendava Tebqa; Classical Syriac: ܣܟܪܐ ܕܛܒܩܗ, romanized: Sekro d'Tabqa), or al-Thawra Dam as it is also named (Arabic: سَدُّ الثَّوْرَةِ, romanized: Sadd aṯ-Ṯawrah, Kurdish: Bendava Tewra; Classical Syriac: ܣܟܪܐ ܕܬܘܪܗ, romanized: Sekro d'Ṯawra, literally "Dam of the Revolution"), most commonly known as Euphrates Dam (Arabic: سَدُّ الْفُرَاتِ, romanized: Sadd al-Furāt; Kurdish: Bendava Firatê; Classical Syriac: ܣܟܪܐ ܕܦܪܬ, romanized: Sekro d'Frot), is an earthen dam on the Euphrates, located 40 kilometres (25 mi) upstream from the city of Raqqa in Raqqa Governorate, Syria. The city of Al-Thawrah is located immediately south of the dam. The dam is 60 metres (200 ft) high and 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) long and is the largest dam in Syria.[1] Its construction led to the creation of Lake Assad, Syria's largest water reservoir. The dam was constructed between 1968 and 1973 with help from the Soviet Union. At the same time, an international effort was made to excavate and document as many archaeological remains as possible in the area of the future lake before they would be flooded by the rising water. When the flow of the Euphrates was reduced in 1974 to fill the lake behind the dam, a dispute broke out between Syria and Iraq (which is downstream) that was settled by intervention from Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union.[2] The dam was originally built to generate hydroelectric power, as well as irrigate lands on both sides of the Euphrates. The dam has not reached its full potential in either of these objectives.[3]
Project history
[edit]In 1927, when Syria was a French mandate, it was proposed to build a dam in the Euphrates near the Syria–Turkey border. After Syria became independent in 1946, the feasibility of the project was studied and shelved. In 1957, the Syrian government reached an agreement with the Soviet Union to build a dam in the Euphrates. In 1960, as part of the United Arab Republic, Syria signed an agreement with West Germany for a financing loan. In 1965, after Syria left the UAR, a new agreement was reached with the Soviet Union. A special government department was created to oversee the construction.[4] In the early 1960s Swedish geomorphologist Åke Sundborg worked as an advisor on the dam project with the task of estimating the amount and fate of sediment entering the dam. Sundborg developed a mathematical model on the projected growth of a river delta in the dam.[5][6]
Originally, the Tabqa Dam was conceived as a dual-purpose dam. The dam would include a hydroelectric power station with eight turbines capable of producing 880 MW in total, and would irrigate an area of 640,000 hectares (2,500 sq mi) on both sides of the Euphrates.[3][7] Construction of the dam lasted between 1968 and 1973, while the accompanying power station was finished on 8 March 1978.[8] The dam was constructed during the agricultural reform policies of Hafez al-Assad, who had re-routed the Euphrates river for the dam in 1974.[9] The total cost of the dam was US$340 million of which US$100 million was in the form of a loan by the Soviet Union.[7] The Soviet Union also provided technical expertise.[10] During construction, up to 12,000 Syrians and 900 Russian technicians worked on the dam.[11] They were housed in the greatly expanded town near the construction site, which was subsequently renamed Al-Thawrah.[1] To facilitate the project, as well as the construction of irrigation works on the Khabur River, the national railway system (Chemins de Fer Syriens) was extended from Aleppo to the dam, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and eventually Qamishli.[12] Around 4,000 Arab families who had been living in the flooded part of the Euphrates Valley were resettled in other parts of northern Syria, part of a partially implemented plan to establish an "Arab belt" along the borders with Turkey and Iraq in order to separate Kurds in Syria from Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan.[13][14]
Dispute with Iraq
[edit]In 1974, the authorities started to fill the lake behind the dam by reducing the flow of the Euphrates. Slightly earlier, the Turkish government had started filling the reservoir of the newly constructed Keban Dam, and at the same time the area was hit by significant drought.[15] As a result, Iraq received significantly less water from the Euphrates than normal, and complained that annual Euphrates flow had dropped from 15.3 cubic kilometres (3.7 cu mi) in 1973 to 9.4 cubic kilometres (2.3 cu mi) in 1975.[16][17] Iraq asked the Arab League to intervene but Syria argued that it received less water from Turkey as well.[18] As a result, tensions rose; both governments sent troops to the Syria-Iraq border,[2][19] and the Iraqi government threatened to bomb the Tabqa Dam.[2][20] Before the dispute could escalate any further, an agreement was reached in 1975 after mediation by Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union, whereby Syria immediately increased the flow from the dam and agreed to let 60 percent of the Euphrates water that came over the Syria-Turkey border flow into Iraq.[2][18] In 1987, Turkey, Syria and Iraq signed an agreement by which Turkey was committed to maintain an average Euphrates flow of 500 cubic metres (18,000 cu ft) per second into Syria, which translates into 16 cubic kilometres (3.8 cu mi) of water per year.[21]
Rescue excavations in the Lake Assad region
[edit]The upper part of the Syrian Euphrates valley has been intensively occupied at least since the Late Natufian period (10,800–9500 BC).[22][23] Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European travellers had already noted the presence of numerous archaeological sites in the area that would be flooded by the new reservoir.[24] In order to preserve or at least document as many of these remains as possible, an extensive archaeological rescue programme was initiated during which more than 25 sites were excavated.[25][26]
Between 1963 and 1965, archaeological sites and remains were located with the help of aerial photographs, and a ground survey was carried out as well to determine the periods that were present at each site.[27] Between 1965 and 1970, foreign archaeological missions carried out systematic excavations at the sites of Mureybet (United States), Tell Qannas (Habuba Kabira) (Belgium), Mumbaqa (Germany), Selenkahiye (Netherlands), and Emar (France). With help from UNESCO, two minarets at Mureybet and Meskene were photogrammetrically measured, and a protective glacis was built around the castle Qal'at Ja'bar. The castle was located on a hilltop that would not be flooded, but the lake would turn it in an island.[28] The castle is now connected to the shore by a causeway.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/CaberKalesi.jpg/220px-CaberKalesi.jpg)
In 1971, with support from UNESCO, Syria appealed to the international community to participate in the efforts to salvage as many archaeological remains as possible before the area would disappear under the rising water of Lake Assad. To stimulate foreign participation, the Syrian antiquities law was modified so that foreign missions had the right to claim a part of the artefacts that were found during excavation.[29] As a result, between 1971 and 1977, numerous excavations were carried out in the Lake Assad area by Syrian as well as foreign missions. Syrian archaeologists worked at the sites of Tell al-'Abd, 'Anab al-Safinah, Tell Sheikh Hassan, Qal'at Ja'bar, Dibsi Faraj and Tell Fray. There were missions from the United States on Tell Hadidi (Azu), Dibsi Faraj, Tell Fray and Shams ed-Din-Tannira; from France on Mureybet and Emar; from Italy on Tell Fray; from the Netherlands on Tell Ta'as, Jebel Aruda and Selenkahiye; from Switzerland on Tell al-Hajj; from Great Britain on Abu Hureyra and Tell es-Sweyhat; and from Japan on Tell Roumeila. In addition, the minarets of Mureybet and Meskene were moved to higher locations, and Qal'at Ja'bar was further reinforced and restored.[29] Many finds from the excavations are now on display in the National Museum of Aleppo, where a special permanent exhibition is devoted to the finds from the Lake Assad region.[30]
Other dams in the Syrian Euphrates valley
[edit]After the completion of the Tabqa Dam, Syria built two more dams in the Euphrates, both of which were functionally related to the Tabqa Dam. The Baath Dam, located 18 kilometres (11 mi) downstream from the Tabqa Dam, was completed in 1986 and functions as a floodwater control to manage the irregular output of the Tabqa Dam and as a hydroelectric power station. The Tishrin Dam, which functions primarily as a hydroelectric power station, has been constructed 80 kilometres (50 mi) south from the Syria–Turkey border and filling of the reservoir started in 1999.[31] Its construction was partly motivated by the disappointing performance of the Tabqa Dam.[32] The implementation of a fourth dam between Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor – the Halabiye Dam – was planned in 2009 and an appeal to archaeologists was released to excavate sites that will be flooded by the new reservoir.[33]
Recent history
[edit]On 11 February 2013 the dam was captured by the Syrian opposition in their fight against the government, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.[34] In 2013, four of the dam's eight turbines were operational and the original staff continued to manage it. Dam workers still received pay from the Syrian Government, and fighting in the area temporarily ceased if repairs were needed.[35] The dam was then captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2014. SDF efforts to retake parts of the Al-Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor Governorates, including the area immediately surrounding the dam, began in November 2016. Interruptions in power output from the dam due to combat are estimated to have affected up to 40,000 people.[36]
In January 2017 the Euphrates rose 10 meters due to heavy precipitation and flow mismanagement, disrupting transportation and flooding farmland downstream. A nearby raid against ISIL by combined SDF and US special forces also impacted the dam's entrance.[36]
In March 2017, ISIL warned of the dam's imminent collapse[37] after the towers attached to the dam were bombed by an American B-52 bomber during a joint US/SDF operation to capture it on March 26, 2017. The dam had been on a U.S. no-strike list but was struck by three bombs anyway.[38] The bombing caused critical equipment to fail and the dam to stop functioning. One of the bombs, a bunker buster, failed to detonate. An emergency ceasefire between the Islamic State, US forces, and the Syrian government, otherwise sworn enemies, enabled engineers to make emergency repairs to the dam to prevent it from failing[38] while the Turkish authorities coordinated to close the gates of dams upstream in order to prevent overtopping.[39] A US drone strike killed three of the civilian emergency dam workers shortly thereafter.[38] On March 29 a floodgate was opened by emergency workers, causing flooding downstream which displaced approximately 3,000 people. A second floodgate was opened on April 5, mitigating risk of collapse.[39] If the dam had failed major flooding would have extended past Deir ez-Zor, more than 100 miles downstream.[36] SDF forces announced they captured the dam on 10 May 2017.[40]
Characteristics of the dam and the reservoir
[edit]![See caption](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/Tabqa_Dam.png/220px-Tabqa_Dam.png)
The Tabqa dam is located on a spot where rocky outcrops on each side of the Euphrates Valley are less than 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) apart. The dam is an earth-fill dam that is 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) long, 60 metres (200 ft) high from the riverbed (307 metres (1,007 ft) above sea-level), 512 metres (1,680 ft) wide at its base and 19 metres (62 ft) at the top.[41] The hydroelectric power station is located on the southern end of the dam and contains eight Kaplan turbines. The turbines' rotation speed is 125 RPM, and they can potentially generate 103 MW each.[42] Lake Assad is 80 kilometres (50 mi) long and on average 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) wide.[32] The reservoir can potentially hold 11.7 cubic kilometres (2.8 cu mi) of water, at which size its surface area would be 610 square kilometres (240 sq mi).[31] Annual evaporation is 1.3 cubic kilometres (0.31 cu mi) due to the high average summer temperature in northern Syria.[43] This is high compared to reservoirs upstream from Lake Assad. For example, the evaporation at Keban Dam Lake is 0.48 cubic kilometres (0.12 cu mi) per year at roughly the same surface area.[15]
Neither the Tabqa Dam nor Lake Assad is currently used to its full economic potential. Although the lake can potentially hold 11.7 cubic kilometres (2.8 cu mi), actual capacity is 9.6 cubic kilometres (2.3 cu mi), with a surface area of 447 square kilometres (173 sq mi).[44] The proposed irrigation scheme suffered from a number of problems, including the high gypsum content in the reclaimed soils around Lake Assad, soil salinization, the collapse of canals that distributed the water from Lake Assad, and the unwillingness of farmers to resettle in the reclaimed areas. As a result, only 60,000 hectares (230 sq mi) were irrigated from Lake Assad in 1984.[32] In 2000, the irrigated surface had risen to 124,000 hectares (480 sq mi), which is 19 percent of the projected 640,000 hectares (2,500 sq mi).[43][45] Due to lower than expected water flow from Turkey, as well as lack of maintenance, the dam generates only 150 MW instead of 800 MW.[3] Lake Assad is the most important source of drinking water to Aleppo, providing the city through a pipeline with 0.08 cubic kilometres (0.019 cu mi) of drinking water per year.[3] The lake also supports a fishing industry.[46]
Environmental effects
[edit]Research indicates that the salinity of the Euphrates water in Iraq has increased considerably since the nearly simultaneous construction of the Keban Dam in Turkey and the Tabqa Dam in Syria. This increase can, among other things, be related to the lower discharge of the Euphrates as a result of the construction of the Keban Dam and the dams of the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) in Turkey, and to a lesser degree of the Tabqa Dam in Syria. High-salinity water is less useful for domestic and irrigation purposes.[47]
The shore of the lake has developed into an important marshland area. On the southeastern shore, some areas have been reforested with evergreen trees including the Aleppo pine and the Euphrates poplar. Lake Assad is an important wintering location for migratory birds and the government has undertaken measures to protect small areas along the shores of Lake Assad from hunters by downgrading access roads. The island of Jazirat al-Thawra has been designated a nature reserve.[48]
See also
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
References
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- ^ a b c d Kaya 1998
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- ^ Reich, Bernard (1990). Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-26213-5.
- ^ Shapland 1997, p. 109
- ^ Bourgey 1974, p. 348
- ^ Hughes 2008
- ^ Anonymous 2009, p. 11
- ^ McDowall 2004, p. 475
- ^ a b Kalpakian 2004, p. 108
- ^ Shapland 1997, p. 117
- ^ Frenken 2009, p. 345
- ^ a b Wolf 1994, p. 29
- ^ Kangarani 2005, p. 65
- ^ Scheumann 2003, p. 745
- ^ Inan 2000
- ^ Akkermans & Schwartz 2003, pp. 28–32
- ^ Wilkinson 2004
- ^ Bell 1924, pp. 39–51
- ^ Bounni & Lundquist 1977, p. 2
- ^ McClellan 1997
- ^ Reichel 2004
- ^ Bounni & Lundquist 1977, pp. 2–3
- ^ a b Bounni & Lundquist 1977, p. 4
- ^ Bounni & Lundquist 1977, p. 6
- ^ a b Altinbilek 2004, p. 21
- ^ a b c Collelo 1987
- ^ Jamous 2009
- ^ "Syria crisis: 'Powerful' minibus explosion kills 13", BBC News, BBC, 11 February 2013, retrieved 12 February 2013
- ^ Malas, Nour (30 May 2013), "Syrian Rebel Held Dam Churns Out Power, Thanks In Part to Regime", Wall Street Journal, archived from the original on 22 July 2020, retrieved 30 May 2013
- ^ a b c "Syria Crisis: Ar-Raqqa" (PDF). United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
- ^ "Rudaw English on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
- ^ a b c Philipps, Dave; Khan, Azmat; Schmitt, Eric (20 January 2022). "A Dam in Syria Was on a 'No- Strike' List. The U.S. Bombed It Anyway". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- ^ a b "Syria Crisis: Menbij and Ar-Raqqa" (PDF). United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 8 April 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
- ^ "U.S.-backed Syria militias say Tabqa, dam captured from Islamic State". Reuters. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
- ^ Bourgey 1974, p. 349
- ^ Bourgey 1974, p. 351
- ^ a b Elhadj 2008
- ^ Jones et al. 2008, p. 62
- ^ Mutin 2003, p. 4
- ^ Krouma 2006
- ^ Rahi & Halihan 2009
- ^ Murdoch et al. 2005, pp. 49–51
Notes
[edit]- Anonymous (2009), Group denial. Repression of Kurdish political and cultural rights in Syria (PDF), New York: Human Rights Watch, OCLC 472433635
- Adeel, Zafar; Mainguet, Monique (2000), Summary Report of the Workshop, New Approaches to Water Management in Central Asia, United Nations University/ICARDA, pp. 208–22, archived from the original on 28 May 2010, retrieved 16 December 2009
- Akkermans, Peter M. M. G.; Schwartz, Glenn M. (2003), The archaeology of Syria. From complex hunter-gatherers to early urban societies (ca. 16,000–300 BC), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-79666-0
- Altinbilek, Dogan (2004), "Development and Management of the Euphrates–Tigris Basin", International Journal of Water Resources Development, 20 (1): 15–33, Bibcode:2004IJWRD..20...15A, doi:10.1080/07900620310001635584, ISSN 1360-0648, S2CID 216149850
- Bell, Gertrude Lowthian (1924), "Amurath to Amurath", Nature, 114 (2869), London: Macmillan & Co: 606, Bibcode:1924Natur.114R.606., doi:10.1038/114606c0, OCLC 481634750, S2CID 4101812
- Bounni, Adnan; Lundquist, J. M. (1977), "Campaign and exhibition from the Euphrates in Syria", The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 44: 1–7, ISSN 0066-0035, JSTOR 3768538
- Bourgey, André (1974), "Le barrage de Tabqa et l'amenagement du bassin de l'Euphrate en Syrie", Revue de Géographie de Lyon (in French), 49 (4): 343–354, doi:10.3406/geoca.1974.1658, ISSN 1960-601X
- Collelo, Thomas (1987), Syria: A Country Study, Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, ISBN 9780160016905, OCLC 44250830
- Elhadj, Elie (2008), "Dry aquifers in Arab countries and the looming food crisis", Middle East Review of International Affairs, 12 (3), ISSN 1565-8996
- Frenken, Karen (2009), Irrigation in the Middle East region in figures. AQUASTAT Survey - 2008 (PDF), Rome: FAO, ISBN 978-92-5-106316-3, archived from the original (PDF) on 9 August 2017
- Hughes, Hugh (2008), Middle East Railways, AlMashriq, retrieved 14 December 2009
- Hunt, Carla (1974), "Last boat to Tabqa", Saudi Aramco World, 25 (1): 8–10, ISSN 1530-5821, archived from the original on 13 January 2010, retrieved 16 December 2009
- Inan, Yüksel (2000), The law of international water courses and the Middle East (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2011
- Jamous, Bassam (2009), "Nouveaux aménagements hydrauliques sur le Moyen Euphrate syrienne. Appel à projets archéologiques d'urgence" (PDF), Studia Orontica (in French), DGAM, retrieved 14 December 2009
- Jones, C.; Sultan, M.; Yan, E.; Milewski, A.; Hussein, M.; Al-Dousari, A.; Al-Kaisy, S.; Becker, R. (2008), "Hydrologic impacts of engineering projects on the Tigris–Euphrates system and its marshlands", Journal of Hydrology, 353 (1–2): 59–75, Bibcode:2008JHyd..353...59J, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2008.01.029, ISSN 0022-1694
- Kalpakian, Jack (2004), Identity, conflict and cooperation in international river systems, Aldershot: Ashgate, ISBN 978-0-7546-3338-9
- Kangarani, Hannaneh M. (2005), Euphrates and Tigris watershed. Economic, social and institutional aspects of forest in an integrated watershed management (PDF), Rome: FAO, OCLC 444911461, archived from the original (PDF) on 11 October 2017
- Kaya, Ibrahim (1998), "The Euphrates–Tigris basin: An overview and opportunities for cooperation under international law", Arid Lands Newsletter, 44, ISSN 1092-5481
- Krouma, I. (2006), "National Aquaculture Sector Overview. Syrian Arab Republic. National Aquaculture Sector Overview Fact Sheets", FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, FAO, retrieved 15 December 2009
- McClellan, Thomas L. (1997), "Euphrates Dams, Survey of", in Meyers, Eric M. (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Ancient Near East, vol. 2, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 290–292, ISBN 0-19-506512-3
- McDowall, David (2004), A modern history of the Kurds, London: I.B. Tauris, ISBN 978-1-85043-416-0
- Murdoch, D. A.; Vos, R.; Abdallah, A.; Abdallah, M.; Andrews, I.; al-Asaad, A.; van Beusekom, R.; Hofland, R.; Roth, T. (2005), A Winter Survey of Syrian Wetlands. Final Report of the Syrian Wetland Expedition, January – February 2004, London: privately published, OCLC 150245788
- Mutin, Georges (2003), "Le Tigre et l'Euphrate de la discorde", VertigO (in French), 4 (3): 1–10, doi:10.4000/vertigo.3869, ISSN 1492-8442
- Rahi, Khayyun A.; Halihan, Todd (2009), "Changes in the salinity of the Euphrates River system in Iraq", Regional Environmental Change, 10: 27–35, doi:10.1007/s10113-009-0083-y, ISSN 1436-378X, S2CID 8616217
- Reichel, Clemens (2004), "Appendix B: Site gazetteer" (PDF), in Wilkinson, Tony J. (ed.), On the margin of the Euphrates. Settlement and land use at Tell es-Sweyhat and in the Upper Lake Assad area, Syria, Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 124, Chicago: Oriental Institute, pp. 223–261, ISBN 1-885923-29-5, archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2013, retrieved 17 December 2009
- Scheumann, Waltina (2003), "The Euphrates issue in Turkish–Syrian relations", in Brauch, Hans Günter; Liotta, P. H.; Marquina, Antonio; Rogers, Paul F.; Selim, Mohammed El-Sayed (eds.), Security and environment in the Mediterranean. Conceptualising security and environmental conflicts, Berlin: Springer, pp. 745–760, ISBN 3-540-40107-5
- Shapland, Greg (1997), Rivers of discord: international water disputes in the Middle East, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-312-16522-2
- Wilkinson, Tony J. (2004), On the margin of the Euphrates. Settlement and land use at Tell es-Sweyhat and in the Upper Lake Assad area, Syria (PDF), Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 124, Chicago: Oriental Institute, ISBN 1-885923-29-5, archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2013, retrieved 17 December 2009
- Wolf, Aaron T. (1994), "A Hydropolitical History of the Nile, Jordan and Euphrates River Basins", in Biswas, Asit K (ed.), International Waters of the Middle East: From Euphrates-Tigris to Nile, Oxford University Press, pp. 5–43, ISBN 978-0-19-854862-1
- Hydroelectric power stations in Syria
- Dams in Syria
- Soviet Union–Syria relations
- Dams on the Euphrates River
- Buildings and structures in Raqqa Governorate
- Earth-filled dams
- Dams completed in 1973
- 1973 establishments in Syria
- Energy infrastructure completed in 1977
- Soviet foreign aid
- Crossings of the Euphrates
- Iraq–Syria relations