Afrin Dam and Maydanki Lake

Afrin Dam is an earth-fill dam on the Afrin River, 12 km north of the town of Afrin, beside the village of Maydanki. Its official name is the 17 April Dam, after the day the French Mandate ended. The lake behind it stretches 14 km up the valley and completely covers the spot where the Maydanki waterfalls used to run. Aleppo is 70 km away.

When and why the dam was built

The project was approved in 1984, building began in 1997 and the dam opened on 24 April 2004. It does three jobs: irrigation, drinking water and power. It irrigates 31263 hectares. Under the plan, 52 per cent of that land is olives, 11 per cent fruit and 31 per cent wheat, barley, beet, watermelon and cotton. The scheme supplies drinking water to about 197 thousand people and has 25 MW of hydroelectric capacity.

How big the dam is

The embankment is 73 metres high and 983 metres long at the crest. It is 385 metres wide at the base and narrows to 22 metres at the top; the crest stands at 339 metres above sea level. The intake tower has a cross-section of 20 by 20 metres and is close to 90 metres tall. The half-fan spillway can pass 1329 cubic metres of water a second. Two tunnels run through the dam: an emergency outlet five and a half metres across and 280 metres long, and a drinking and irrigation tunnel 15 metres across and 295 metres long.

What the lake is like

The reservoir holds 190 million cubic metres. The lake is 14 km long, 650 metres wide in its middle stretch and covers 925 hectares. The catchment feeding it is 1365 km², with 330-700 mm of rain a year. The lake was declared a protected area in 2004 by decree no. 1849.

Most of the water comes from across the border. Of the Afrin River’s yearly flow, about 250 million cubic metres come from Turkey and 60 million from Syrian territory. Once the lake filled, it became a summer picnic and swimming spot for people from Aleppo.

Below the dam: the Kamruk falls

About 2400 metres south-west of the dam, water pours over an old stone structure. To the right of the falls is a channel cut into the rock that carried water to a mill, which worked until the 1970s. Next to it are the ruins of an abandoned village, and below the falls is a small pond among trees. The irrigation canal from the dam runs down from here to the Jumeh plain.

Before you go

Cracks in the dam body were reported after the February 2023 earthquake (North Press, 8 February 2023). No newer source on its condition could be found. The dam is a strategic installation, so getting close to it or taking photographs may be restricted. There is no information from the past year on access to the lake or the area around the dam; ask in Afrin before you set out.

What most people miss

The intake tower. The structure rising out of the lake is close to 90 metres tall, which makes it taller than the 73-metre dam. What shows above the water is only its top, so the same tower looks taller or shorter depending on how full the lake is.