Lake Dukan (or Lake Dokan) ''(Arabic:بحيرة دوكان)'' is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok, ...

Iraq. It is located close to the city of

Ranya Ranya ( ckb, ڕانیە, Ranye, ar, رانية) is a town in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and is part of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate. Geography and climate Ranya City is located in the north east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Ranya is loca ...

, and is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

on the

Little Zab The Little Zab or Lower Zab (, ''al-Zāb al-Asfal''; or '; , ''Zâb-e Kuchak''; , ''Zāba Taḥtāya'') is a river that originates in Iran and joins the Tigris just south of Al Zab in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. It is approximately long and dr ...

created by the construction of the

Dukan Dam The Dukan Dam ( Sorani Kurdish: بەنداوی دووکان Arabic: سد دوكان) is a multi-purpose concrete arch dam in As Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It impounds the Little Zab, thereby creating Lake Dukan. The Duka ...

. The Dukan Dam was built between 1954 and 1959 as a multi-purpose dam to provide water storage,

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

and

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...

. Prior to the flooding of Lake Dukan, the area has been subjected to archaeological research to investigate as many archaeological sites as possible. An

archaeological survey In archaeology, survey or field survey is a type of field research by which archaeologists (often landscape archaeologists) search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution and organization of past human c ...

in the Ranya Plain documented some 40

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

s with evidence for occupation ranging from the sixth millennium BCE up to the present. Five of these sites were then excavated:

Tell Bazmusian Tell Bazmusian is an archaeological site on the right bank of the Little Zab in the Ranya Plain ( Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraq). The site was excavated between 1956 and 1958 by Iraqi archaeologists as part of a salvage operation to document cu ...

, ed-Dem, Kamarian, Qarashina and

Tell Shemshara Tell may refer to: *Tell (archaeology), a type of archaeological site *Tell (name), a name used as a given name and a surname *Tell (poker), a subconscious behavior that can betray information to an observant opponent Arts, entertainment, and m ...

. The excavations at Tell Bazmusian revealed a temple dating to the second millennium BCE. At Tell Shemshara, an early-sixth millennium BCE village was excavated, as well as an early-second millennium BCE palace with a small archive of

clay tablet In the Ancient Near East, clay tablets (Akkadian ) were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Cuneiform characters were imprinted on a wet clay tablet with a stylu ...

s. The inhabitants of some 50 villages in the flooded area, around 1,000–1,200 families, were resettled to the west of the lake. The surface area of the lake is . At normal operation, the capacity of the reservoir is while its maximum capacity is . At that capacity, the surface elevation is above sea-level. In order to operate the power station, the surface elevation must be between . The

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

of the Dukan Dam is .

References

External links

Lake Dukan Rowing Club
{{commons category, Lake Dukan Sulaymaniyah Governorate Dukan Dukan Tourist attractions in Iraqi Kurdistan

See also

References

External links