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The Lake Homs Dam, also known as Qattinah Dam, is a
The 2 km long and 7 m high masonry gravity dam consists of a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
-built dam
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...
near the city of Homs, Syria, which is in use to this day.
History
Contrary to an older hypothesis which tentatively linked the origins of the dam toEgyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
ruler Sethi (1319–1304 BC), the structure dates to 284 AD when it was built by the Roman emperor Diocletian (284–305 AD) for irrigation purposes. With a capacity of 90 million m³, it is considered the largest Roman reservoir in the Near East and may have even been the largest artificial reservoir constructed up to that time. Remarkably, the reservoir has suffered very little silting since.
The 2 km long and 7 m high masonry gravity dam consists of a Roman concrete
Roman concrete, also called , is a material that was used in construction in ancient Rome. Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement. It is durable due to its incorporation of pozzolanic ash, which prevents cracks from spreading. ...
core protected by basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
blocks. The slightly pointed curvature of the dam follows the course of a long ridge of basalt and thus bears only superficial resemblance to an arch dam
An arch dam is a concrete dam that is curved upstream in plan. The arch dam is designed so that the force of the water against it, known as hydrostatic pressure, presses against the arch, causing the arch to straighten slightly and strengthe ...
.
In 1938, the level of the dam was raised, increasing the volume of the artificial lake to 200 million m³.;
See also
*Al-Rastan Dam
Al-Rastan Dam is an embankment dam on the Orontes River in the city of Al-Rastan, Homs Governorate, Syria. It was completed in 1960 with the primary purpose of irrigation. It was constructed by the Bulgarian firm Hydrostroy along with the Mouha ...
– located downstream
*List of Roman dams and reservoirs
This is a list of Roman dams and reservoirs. The study of Roman dam-building has received little scholarly attention in comparison to their other civil engineering activities, even though their contributions in this field have been ranked alon ...
*Roman architecture
Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome ...
* Roman engineering
References
Sources
* * * * Dams in Syria Ancient Roman dams Gravity dams Buildings and structures in Homs Governorate {{Asia-dam-stub