The Batman River is a major

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

of the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

, joining it near the source of Tigris called Dicle River in southeast

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

. The region along the Batman River is known for its oil fields.

Course

The river originates in the

Anti-Taurus Mountains The Anti-Taurus Mountains (from el, Αντίταυρος) are a mountain range in southern and eastern Turkey, curving northeast from the Taurus Mountains. At , Mount Erciyes ( Turkish: Erciyes Dağı) is the highest peak not just in the ra ...

(at the Sason and Genç mountains) and flows approximately from north to south, passing near the city of

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...

and forming a natural border between the

Batman Province Batman Province ( tr, , ku, Parêzgeha Êlihê) is a province in the Southeast Anatolia Region of Turkey. It was created in May 1990 with the Law No. 3647 taking some parts from the eastern Province of Siirt and some from the southern Province ...

and

Diyarbakır Province Diyarbakır Province ( tr, Diyarbakır ili, Zazaki: Suke Diyarbekır ku, Parêzgeha Amedê) is a province in southeastern Turkey. The province covers an area of 15,355 km2 and its population is 1,528,958. The provincial capital is the cit ...

. The historic Malabadi Bridge (built in 1146–1147) crosses the river near the town of Silvan.Batman. Coğrafya
, kultur.gov.tr, 21 February 2007 (in Turkish) The river is widest at about right after exiting the dam, but then narrows to about and forms numerous splits along its way to the Tigris. Its riverbed is irregular in many places, promoting flooding. A tributary of Batman, the Iluh River, originates in the Raman Mountain on the south of the Batman city and flows north-west through the city into the Batman River. Despite being a small river, absent on most maps, Iluh plays an important role for the province because its spring floods affect the provincial capital. The floods of Iluh and Batman rivers occur between March and May and sometimes in October or November. Major floods occurred in 1969 (April, 60 buildings damaged), 1972 (April and May, 210 buildings damaged), 1991 (November, 500 buildings flooded), 1995 (March, nearly 1000 buildings submerged and 450 damaged) and 2006 (October, 11 people died and 20 injured).Balaban, Meltem Şeno
Risk society and planning: the case of flood disaster management in turkish cities
PhD Thesis. Graduate School of Natural and Applied sciences, Middle East Technical University 2009, pp. 147–149, 157

Name

In Antiquity, the Batman River was known as ''Kalat''. This name meant "bride" to the Syriac people who populated the area; it was thus translated into Greek as ''Nymphios'' (Νυμφίος, Latinized ''Nymphius'') and ''Nymphaios'' (Νυμφαῖος, Latinized ''Nymphaeus''). Among Arabs it was known as ''Satidama'', meaning "the bloody" reflecting the battles fought near it. In international literature, the name Batman came into use since the 19th century, whereas in the 18th century and before it was mostly referred to as Nymphius, among other names. The origin of the name "Batman" is unclear: it might be a shortening of the name of the tall Bati Raman mountain located nearby or refer to the

unit of weight A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude (mathematics), magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can ...

used in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

History

The river served as a natural border between the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and

Sassanid Persia The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

and saw major battles in 583 and 591 AD. The main citadel on the river was Martyropolis, modern Silvan.Nymphius (Batman)
/ref> The Batman Dam ( tr, Batman Baraji, B. de Batman on the map) was built in 1999 in the upstream (), together with the associated reservoir and hydroelectric power plant.Batman Dam
. General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works, Turkey

Wildlife

The Batman River loach (''Paraschistura chrysicristinae'') is a Critically Endangered fish native to the Batman and Ambar rivers. The fish is endangered by drought, habitat destruction, and

habitat fragmentation Habitat fragmentation describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat), causing population fragmentation and ecosystem decay. Causes of habitat fragmentation include geological process ...

from construction of the Batman Dam. It had not been observed since 1974 and was feared extinct until a 2021 expedition netted 14 fish living above the Batman Dam.Greene, Graeme (2021) "Batman loach returns: fish feared extinct found in Turkey". ''The Guardian'' 9 December 2021

/ref>

References

{{Tigris Tributaries of the Tigris River Rivers of Turkey Landforms of Batman Province Roman–Sasanian Wars