Surface water management in Urartu period

Many civilizations have developed on Anatolian lands throughout history. One of the mentioned civilizations, Eastern Anatolia Region, BC. the first half of the first millennium are the Urartians in the Van region. Urartians have developed very important water systems especially for Van and its vicinity in order to supply water which is one of the basic needs of living life. It is of great importance that many dams, built during the Urartu period, are stably dated to the present day, and that they remain standing and function in the next centuries, and that they are recognized in the wider environment.In this study, in order to have an idea about surface water management of the Urartuans in the Van region, the dam reservoir capacities and total water volume calculations were calculated based on the dam characteristics. Maintaining their original form to a great extent, most of these water structures, which are still functional, have been determined by drawing elevation area and elevation volume graphs of these water structures and their storage volumes have been determined as approximately 35 million m3.