Great Zab | |
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![]() Landscape of a section of the Great Zab in Erbil, Northern Iraq (Kurdistan region). | |
![]() Map (in French) showing the course of the Great Zab (Grand Zab) in Iraq and the location of the Bekhme Dam (Barrage de Bekhme) | |
Location | |
Country | Turkey, Iraq (Kurdistan Region) |
Cities | Amadiya, Barzan |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Taurus Mountains, Turkey |
• elevation | 3,000 m (9,800 ft)approx. |
Mouth | |
• location | Tigris, Iraq |
• coordinates | 35°59′28″N 43°20′37″E / 35.99111°N 43.34361°E |
Length | 400 km (250 mi)approx. |
Basin size | 40,300 km2 (15,600 sq mi)approx. |
Discharge | |
• average | 419 m3/s (14,800 cu ft/s) |
• maximum | 1,320 m3/s (47,000 cu ft/s) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Rubar-i-Shin, Rukuchuk, Rubar-i-Ruwandiz, Rubat Mawaran, Bastura Chai |
• right | Khazir |
The Great Zab or Upper Zab (Arabic: الزَّاب الْكَبِيْر, romanized: ez-Zâb el-Kebîr; Kurdish: Zêy Badînan or Zêyê Mezin; Turkish: Zap; Syriac: ܙܒܐ ܥܠܝܐ, romanized: zāba ʻalya) is an approximately 400-kilometre (250 mi) long river flowing through Turkey and Iraq. It rises in Turkey near Lake Van and joins the Tigris in Iraq south of Mosul. During its course, the river collects water from many tributaries and the drainage basin of the Great Zab covers approximately 40,300 square kilometres (15,600 sq mi). The river and its tributaries are primarily fed by rainfall and snowmelt – as a result of which discharge fluctuates highly throughout the year. At least six dams have been planned on the Great Zab and its tributaries, but construction of only one, the Bekhme Dam, has commenced but was halted after the Gulf War.
The Zagros Mountains have been occupied since at least the Lower Palaeolithic, and Neanderthal occupation of the Great Zab basin has been testified at the archaeological site of Shanidar Cave. Historical records for the region are available from the end of the third millennium BCE onward. In the Neo-Assyrian period, the Great Zab provided water for irrigation for the lands around the capital city of Nimrud. The Battle of the Zab – which ended the Umayyad Caliphate – took place near a tributary of the Great Zab, and the valleys of the river provided shelter for refugees from the Mongol conquest of Iraq. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Great Zab basin saw frequent uprisings of local Kurdish tribes striving for autonomy.