Makhoul Dam Threatens to Drown the Ancient Assyrian City of Ashur – RisePEI

Iraq, dealing with a menace to its water provide on account of the continuing local weather disaster, is contemplating creating a brand new dam that might flood the traditional metropolis of Ashur. Town simply reopened to the general public in April.

The Makhoul dam is positioned roughly 25 miles from the traditional metropolis, which might not solely flood it, together with greater than 200 different heritage websites, however would additionally displace as much as 250,000 folks at the moment dwelling within the space.

“The affect of the dam’s building has not been sufficiently studied, and up to now there have been no social or environmental affect surveys carried out,” Khalil Aljbory, a tutorial researcher at Tikrit College, mentioned in a statement released by the Iraq NGO Liwan. “As somebody who has been displaced myself by earlier conflicts, I worry that the development of the dam could trigger a second wave of displacement within the area.”

From ca. 2025–1233 B.C.E., Ashur (additionally spelled Assur) was the primary capital of the Assyrian empire, which prolonged from Mesopotamia to Anatolia (or present-day Egypt, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria). Development on the town started greater than 5,000 years in the past alongside the banks of the Tigris River to honor the empire’s omnipotent god, Ashur.

Town’s temple, a ziggurat that rose greater than 85 toes above the Tigris, nonetheless stands. Initially, it could have been twice as tall, embellished in iron, lead, and crystals. The Tabira Gate, a monument comprised of three arches, additionally stays on the metropolis heart. The gateway, which is Ashur’s historic image, was the principle sanctuary of the gods, representing the center of the town, in addition to struggle and fertility.

Ashur was destroyed by Babylonian forces in 612 B.C.E. and, once more, in 2015 by the extremist group ISIS, who succeeded in damaging roughly 70 % of the Tabira Gate—primarily to the construction’s outer arch. Since then, the gate’s authentic construction has been additional impacted by water erosion.

In winter 2020, an emergency grant from the Worldwide Alliance for the Safety of Heritage in Battle Areas prevented the gate’s collapse. The restoration, carried out in coordination with the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage and the Ministry of Tradition, helped stabilize the gate; nevertheless, with out additional intervention, the construction may nonetheless collapse.

Although Ashur not too long ago reopened following the restoration and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage web site in 2003, its future stays unsure. Development on the Makhoul Dam, initially proposed by Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime in 2002, resumed in April 2021. Whereas the mission was placed on maintain through the U.S. invasion of Iraq, persistent droughts spurred by local weather change have devastated Iraq.

Earlier this month, the drought revealed Kemune, an historical web site that had sunken into the Tigris.

Heritage professionals are at the moment negotiating with the Iraqi authorities to protect the monuments in addition to the houses of those that stay close by.

Moreover, the Center for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage at The American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) is engaged on a brand new digital monitoring system to evaluate the steadiness ranges of weak constructions. AUIS will even start a joint survey, with Iraq’s Ministry of Atmosphere and the United Nations Growth Program, this month to doc cultural heritage areas affected by the Makhoul Dam.