Valide Dam () is a historic dam located in

Sarıyer Sarıyer () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 177 km2 and its population is 350,454 (2022). It is on the northeastern part of Istanbul's European side. Sarıyer al ...

district of

Istanbul Province Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, Turkey. Valide Dam was built in 1796 by Ottoman

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

Selim III Selim III (; ; was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1789 to 1807. Regarded as an enlightened ruler, he was eventually deposed and imprisoned by the Janissaries, who placed his cousin Mustafa on the throne as Mustafa IV (). A group of a ...

(reigned 1789–1807) to provide water for the donations in Eyüp of his mother Mihrişah Sultan ( 1745–1805), who was titled

Valide sultan Valide Sultan (, lit. "Sultana mother") was the title held by the mother of a ruling sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans first formally used the title in the 16th century as an epithet of Hafsa Sultan (died 1534), mother of Sultan Suleima ...

during his reign. The dam is situated north of

Bahçeköy, Sarıyer Bahçeköy or Bahçeköy Merkez is a neighbourhood in the municipality and district of Sarıyer, Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its population is 3,737 (2022). Bahçeköy is situated from Sarıyer. It is bordered by Fatih Forest, ...

inside the Bentler Nature Park, which is part of the

Belgrad Forest Belgrad Forest () is a mixed deciduous forest lying adjacent to Istanbul, Turkey. It is named after the village next to the forest, settled by thousands of Serbs who were deported to the capital Constantinople from the city of Belgrade in 1521, w ...

. Valide Dam impounds Ayazağa Creek, a tributary of Acıelma Creek, and has a catchment area of . It is a solid

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is ...

constructed in masonry with its crest and the waterside wall covered by marble. Two

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es in distance at toe are attached to the downstream wall to reinforce the structure. The dam is high from the

thalweg In geography, hydrography, and fluvial geomorphology, a thalweg or talweg () is the line or curve of lowest elevation within a valley or watercourse. Normally only the horizontal position of the curve is considered (as viewed on a map); the c ...

and long at crest. The crest is and the base is wide. The dam has a reservoir capacity of .

References

Gravity dams Dams in Istanbul Province Dams completed in the 18th century Buildings and structures of the Ottoman Empire Sarıyer Belgrad Forest {{Turkey-dam-stub