Harbaqa dam

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Harbaqa dam
Location: Between Damascus and Palmyra ( Syria )
Harbaqa Dam (Syria)
Harbaqa dam
Coordinates 34 ° 14 '47 "  N , 37 ° 37' 39"  E Coordinates: 34 ° 14 '47 "  N , 37 ° 37' 39"  E
Data on the structure
Lock type: Gravity dam
Construction time: 2nd century AD
Height of the barrier structure : 21 m
Crown length: 365 m
Data on the reservoir
Reservoir length 1550 mdep1
Reservoir width 800 mdep1

The Harbaqa Dam was a Roman gravity dam in the Syrian desert between Damascus and Palmyra from the 1st or 2nd century AD.

The remains of the ancient dam are 10 kilometers north of the intersection of the two highways from Damascus via Al-Dumair to Palmyra and from Homs to Baghdad , near Ain al-Baridah.

The core of the dam is made of Roman concrete , which was clad with ashlar on the water and air side. The dam, which is around 21 meters high and around 365 meters long in the area of ​​the wall crown, blocked the Wadi al-Barada. It was originally used to irrigate the surrounding fields, the yields of which supplied Palmyra. In the 8th century, took him to the water supply of 16 kilometers northern of the Caliph Hisham built Qasr al-Hair al-Gharbi ( "Western game reserve Castle"). The water flowed through an open channel (birka) to the bathhouse of the palace and into a large garden ( bustan ) .

literature

  • Niklaus Schnitter: Römische Talsperren , in: Antike Welt , Vol. 8, No. 2 (1978), pp. 25–32 (31)
  • Georg Gerster , Ralf-B. Wartke: Aerial images from Syria. From antiquity to modern times , Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2003, p. 116
  • Dar-Al Ma: The Architecture of Water in the Islamic Countries. In: Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Renata Holod, Attilio Petruccioli, André Raymond (eds.): The city in the Islamic world. Vol. 2, Brill, Leiden 2008, p. 714

See also