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River

Murat

River

Murat is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.

Feature Class
River
Coordinates
39.06°, 41.83°
7.0
Coordinates: 39.0560° N, 41.8307° ECountry: TurkeyOpenStreetMap ↗

About Murat

The Murat River, also called Eastern Euphrates (Turkish: Murat Nehri, Kurdish: Çemê Miradê, Armenian: Արածանի, romanized: Aratsani), is a major source of the Euphrates River. The Ancient Greeks and Romans used to call the river Arsanias (Ancient Greek: Ἀρσανίας). It originates near Mount Ararat north of Lake Van, in Eastern Turkey, and flows westward for 722 km (449 mi) through mountainous terrain. Before the construction of the Keban Dam, the Murat River joined the Karasu River or Western Euphrates 10 km (6.2 mi) north of the dam site and 13 km (8.1 mi) north of the town of Keban.

In Muş Province, the river is interrupted near Toklu by the Alpaslan-1 Dam, which was completed in 2009. The Alpaslan-2 Dam was completed in 2021 and is located downstream of Alpaslan-1. The river merges into the reservoir of the Keban Dam, at one time Turkey's largest dam, which was completed in 1974 and provides electrical power.

In Bingöl and Elazığ provinces, Kalehan Energy has four dams planned for the river: from upstream to downstream, the Upper Kaleköy Dam, Lower Kaleköy Dam, Beyhan I Dam, and Beyhan II Dam. The Beyhan I and Upper Kaleköy dams are already completed.

Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Murat River (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Murat in Depth

Geology and geomorphology

The main source of the Murat River starts in the Diyadin district of Ağrı. The Kocasu River, which originates in the Bingöl Mountains, flows into the Murat River by the village of Sarıpınar village in the Bulanık district after taking the waters coming from the Akdoğan Mountains.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Murat River (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Murat: Key Facts

Key facts about Murat
Length722 km
Drainage basin40,000 km²
SourceMount Ararat
MouthEuphrates
TributariesPeri Brook

Facts from Wikidata Q913193 (CC0).

Major River Dossiers

Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.

Connected Reaches

Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.

Water Bodies in the Catchment

Settlements Along the Reach

Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby

Surrounding Terrain

Murat: Quick Answers

Where is Murat?
Murat is located in Turkey, at 39.0560° N, 41.8307° E.
Are there dams on the Murat?
No dam on the Murat is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.