Tabqa Dam

Tabqa Dam
Tabqa Dam
Location of Tabqa Dam in Syria
Official name	سد الثورة
Country	Syria
Location	Raqqa Governorate Occupation: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Coordinates	35°52′20″N 38°34′00″E / 35.87222°N 38.56667°E / 35.87222; 38.56667Coordinates: 35°52′20″N 38°34′00″E / 35.87222°N 38.56667°E / 35.87222; 38.56667
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	1973-1977
Turbines	8 x 103 MW Kaplan-type
Installed capacity	824 MW

The Tabqa Dam (Arabic: سد الطبقة‎‎), or al-Thawra Dam as it is also named (Arabic: سد الثورة‎‎, literally dam of the revolution), most commonly known as Euphrates Dam, is an earth-fill 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. 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 that was settled by intervention from Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union. 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.

In 1927, when Syria was a French mandate, it was proposed to build a dam in the Euphrates near the Syro–Turkish border. After Syria became independent in 1946, the feasibility of this proposal was re-investigated, but the plan was not carried out. In 1957, the Syrian government reached an agreement with the Soviet Union for technical and financial aid for the construction of a dam in the Euphrates. Syria, as part of the United Arab Republic (UAR), signed an agreement with West Germany in 1960 for a loan to finance the construction of the dam. After Syria left the UAR in 1961, a new agreement about the financing of the dam was reached with the Soviet Union in 1965. A special government department was created in 1961 to oversee the construction of the dam. In the early 1960s Swedish geomorphologist Åke Sundborg worked as advisor in the dam project with the task of estimating the amount and fate of sediments that would enter into the dam. Sundborg developed for this purpose a mathematical model on the prognosed growth of a river delta in the dam.