Tishrin Dam

The Tishrin Dam (; ) is a dam on the Euphrates river, located east of Aleppo in Aleppo Governorate, Syria. The dam is high, and has 6 water turbines capable of producing 630 MW. Construction took place between 1991 and 1999. Rescue excavations in the area that would be flooded by the dam's reservoir have provided important information on ancient settlement in the area from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period onward.

In November 2012, rebel fighters captured the dam from Syrian Government forces of President Bashar al-Assad during a battle of the Syrian Civil War. In September 2014, the Islamic State captured the dam from rebel forces.

In December 2015, the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured the dam from the Islamic State. In December 2024, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) launched an offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces to take the dam, which led to a subsequent counteroffensive of the SDF. The dam plays a strategic role as it is one of the few crossing points across the Euphrates into the Kurdish-controlled north east.

Characteristics of the dam and the reservoir

The Tishrin Dam is a hydroelectric rock-fill dam on the Euphrates, located upstream from the much larger Tabqa Dam. The dam is high and has 6 turbines capable of producing 630 MW. Annual power production of the Tishrin Dam is expected to be 1.6 billion kilowatt hour. The capacity of the long reservoir is , which is small compared to the capacity of Lake Assad of directly downstream from the Tishrin Dam. Apart from the Euphrates, the Tishrin Dam reservoir is also fed by the Sajur River.

History

Construction

Construction started in 1991, and was completed in 1999. One reason for the construction of the Tishrin Dam was the lower than expected power output of the hydroelectrical power station at the Tabqa Dam. This disappointing performance can be attributed to the lower than expected water flow in the Euphrates as it enters Syria from Turkey. Lack of maintenance may also have been a cause. The Tishrin Dam is the last of three dams that Syria has built on the Euphrates. The other two dams are the Tabqa Dam, finished in 1973, and the Baath Dam, finished in 1986. In the 2000s, Syria had plans to build a fourth dam on the Euphrates between Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor – the Halabiye Dam.

Rescue excavations in the Tishrin Dam Reservoir region

The Tishrin Dam Reservoir has flooded an area in which numerous archaeological sites were located. To preserve or document as much information from these sites as possible, archaeological excavations were carried out at 15 of them during construction of the dam. Among the oldest excavated and now flooded sites is Jerf el Ahmar, where a French mission worked between 1995 and 1999. Their work revealed that the site had been occupied between 9200 and 8700 BC at the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period and the beginning of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. In its multiple occupation phases, the site contained a sequence of round and rectangular buildings. In the later occupation levels of the site, a number of buildings have been excavated that were partly dug into the soil and had stone walls. Their size, internal division, decoration and the finds of human skulls as foundation deposits led the excavators to suggest that these buildings had a communal function. These finds were deemed so important that in 1999, flooding of the Tishrin Dam Reservoir was postponed for two weeks so that three houses could be dismantled and rebuilt in a museum near the site. Other sites excavated in the project were Jerablus Tahtani and Tell Ahmar the latter being on the north bank of the Euphrates around 33 Kilimetres north of the dam.

The very large archaeological area near the high citadel of Tall Bazi was also flooded by the artificial lake.

Syrian Civil War

On 26 November 2012, rebel fighters captured the dam from Syrian Government forces of President Bashar al-Assad during a battle of the Syrian Civil War. The dam's capture cut off major land-based supply lines for government forces, and further strained their soldiers fighting in the city of Aleppo.

In September 2014, the Islamic State captured the dam from rebel forces.

In December 2015, the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces captured the dam from the Islamic State.

As part of Operation Dawn of Freedom, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army launched an offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces to take the dam on 8 December 2024. On 13 December 2024, several Turkish-affiliated news websites claimed that the dam was captured, but Kurdish news sources refuted them, claiming that the Kurdish forces still controlled the dam. Once again on 26 December 2024, the Turkish Ministry of Defense claimed control over the dam, but SDF spokesperson Ferhad Şamî refuted these claims, by posting a video of himself at the dam on the same day.

On 12 April 2025, the SDF and the Syrian caretaker government agreed to participate in joint military patrols along the dam and to keep it under Kurdish civilian administration. Following the deal, the YPG and YPJ leadership, including Mazloum Abdi and Rohilat Afrin, visited the dam on 18 April 2025.

See also

* Water resources management in Syria
* Operation Shah Euphrates

Notes

References

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External links

Jerf el-Ahmar website

{{Authority control

Hydroelectric power stations in Syria
Dams in Syria
Dams on the Euphrates River
Dams completed in 1999
Buildings and structures in Aleppo Governorate
Crossings of the Euphrates
1999 establishments in Syria