Aslantaş Dam () is an

embankment dam An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface ...

Ceyhan River The Ceyhan River (historically Pyramos or Pyramus (), Leucosyrus () or Jihun) is a river in Anatolia in the south of Turkey. Course of the river The Ceyhan River (Pyramus) has its source (known as ''Söğütlü Dere'') at a location called '' ...

Osmaniye Province Osmaniye Province () is a province in south-central Turkey. It was named Cebel-i Bereket () in the early republic until 1933, when it was incorporated into Adana Province. It was made a province again in 1996. Its area is 3,320 km2, and its p ...

, southern

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, built between 1975 and 1984. Aslantaş Dam is situated northeast of

Adana Adana is a large city in southern Turkey. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the administrative seat of the Adana Province, Adana province, and has a population of 1 81 ...

. Built for

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

flood control Flood management or flood control are methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and ru ...

and electricity generation purposes by the

State Hydraulic Works The State Hydraulic Works () is a state agency, under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Turkey, responsible for the utilization of all the country's water resources. The institution's four major functions are energy, agriculture, servi ...

(DSI), the dam is high and has a volume of filled with rock. The dam creates a wide lake with capacity at normal water level. It irrigates an area of . It also supports a 138 MW power station, which generates 569 GWh electricity annually. According to some sources, the construction of the Aslantaş Dam resulted in involuntary resettlement of 60,000 people. Karatepe Stadtmauer

Partly on the western and eastern banks of the dam reservoir, the Karatepe-Aslantaş National Park is located. On a peninsula at the west bank, the hill

Karatepe Karatepe ( Turkish, 'Black Hill'; Hittite: ''Azatiwataya'') is a late Hittite fortress and open-air museum in Osmaniye Province in southern Turkey lying at a distance of about 23 km from the district center of Kadirli. It is sited in the T ...

is situated inside the national park. Overlooking the dam reservoir, a walled settlement of the

Neo-Hittites The states called Neo-Hittite, Syro-Hittite (in older literature), or Luwian-Aramean (in modern scholarly works) were Luwian and Aramean regional polities of the Iron Age, situated in southeastern parts of modern Turkey and northwestern parts o ...

was discovered on Karatepe dating back to the 8th century BC. Following archaeological excavations between 1946 and 1952, the site was preserved as the Karatepe-Aslantaş Open-Air Museum in 1958. The Kumkale on Domuztepe, another settlement of the Neo-Hittites and a fortification built by the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

, which is located about north of this site, was flooded by the dam reservoir.

References

External links

General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSI)
Dams in Osmaniye Province Hydroelectric power stations in Turkey Dams completed in 1984 Dams on the Ceyhan River {{Turkey-powerstation-stub

See also

References

External links