The Murat River, also called Eastern Euphrates (, , ), is a major source of the
Euphrates
The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...
River. The Ancient Greeks and Romans used to call the river ''Arsanias'' (). It originates near
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat, also known as Masis or Mount Ağrı, is a snow-capped and dormant compound volcano in Eastern Turkey, easternmost Turkey. It consists of two major volcanic cones: Greater Ararat and Little Ararat. Greater Ararat is the highest p ...
north of
Lake Van
Lake Van (; ; ) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey in the provinces of Van Province, Van and Bitlis Province, Bitlis, in the Armenian highlands. It is a Salt lake, saline Soda lake, soda lake, receiv ...
, in Eastern Turkey, and flows westward for through mountainous terrain. Before the construction of the
Keban Dam, the Murat River joined the
Karasu River or Western Euphrates north of the dam site and north of the town of
Keban.
In
Muş Province, the river is interrupted near
Toklu by the
Alpaslan-1 Dam, which was completed in 2009. The
Alpaslan-2 Dam was completed in 2021 and is located downstream of Alpaslan-1. The river merges into the reservoir of the
Keban Dam, at one time Turkey's largest dam, which was completed in 1974 and provides electrical power.
In
Bingöl and
Elazığ provinces, Kalehan Energy has four dams planned for the river: from upstream to downstream, the
Upper Kaleköy Dam,
Lower Kaleköy Dam,
Beyhan I Dam, and
Beyhan II Dam. The Beyhan I and Upper Kaleköy dams are already completed. Once completed, all four dams will have a combined installed capacity of 1,855 MW.
Origin of the river name
The present name is usually connected with the Turkish given name ''
Murat
Murat may refer to:
Places Australia
* Murat Bay, a bay in South Australia
* Murat Marine Park, a marine protected area
France
* Murat, Allier, a commune in the department of Allier
* Murat, Cantal, a commune in the department of Cantal
Elsew ...
'' or the word from which that name derives, . But this may be folk etymology, so
Hrach Martirosyan tentatively proposes derivation from
Old Armenian ,
.
Iron Age
The river was called ' in sources of the
Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...
, and ' in Classical Greek and Roman sources.
Those forms may be derived from an earlier form of Armenian , which Armen Petrosyan derives from an Armenian descendant of the
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
root *' .
Armenian may have developed from an earlier form * (whence Akkadian with the addition of the toponymic suffix ''-iya'' and Greek ) under the influence of many other Armenian toponyms beginning with .
Geology and geomorphology
The main source of the Murat River starts in the
Diyadin
Diyadin (; ) is a town in Ağrı Province of Turkey, at the foot of Mount Tendürek, a high peak in the Aladağlar range that stands between Ağrı and the north shore of Lake Van. It is the seat of Diyadin District.[Ağrı
Ağrı (; ) is a city in eastern Turkey, near the border with Iran. It is the seat of Ağrı Province and Ağrı District.] .
The
Kocasu River, which originates in the
Bingöl Mountains, flows into the Murat River by the village of
Sarıpınar village in the
Bulanık district after taking the waters coming from the
Akdoğan Mountains.
Footnotes
Rivers of Turkey
Euphrates
Landforms of Muş Province
Landforms of Bingöl Province
Landforms of Elazığ Province
Eastern Anatolia region
Mount Ararat
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