The
Tabqa Dam , or
al-Thawra Dam as it is also named (, literally
dam of the revolution), is an
earth-fill dam on the
Euphrates, located upstream from the city of
Ar-Raqqah in
Ar-Raqqah Governorate,
Syria. The dam is high and long and is the largest dam in Syria. Its construction led to the creation of
Lake Assad, Syria's largest water reservoir. The dam was constructed between 1968 and 1973 with help from the
Soviet Union. At the same time, an international effort was made to excavate and document as many archaeological remains as possible in the area of the future lake before they would be flooded by the rising water. When the flow of the Euphrates was reduced in 1974 to fill the lake behind the dam, a dispute broke out between Syria and
Iraq that was settled by intervention from
Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union. The dam was originally built to generate
hydroelectric power, as well as
irrigate lands on both sides of the Euphrates. The dam has not reached its full potential in either of these objectives.