Alacahoyuk, Turkey
Turkish archaeologists have restored a 3,000-year-old dam in central Turkey, where it is once again irrigating farmland. The dam was built in 1240 B.C. by Tudhaliyas IV, a Hittite king, and rediscovered five years ago during a routine excavation of known Hittite sites. Built of stone and clay, it came complete with a purifying pool and irrigation channels. “Up to now, this area was merely a swamp and our people could not irrigate their fields,” said Alacahoyuk Mayor Huseyin Saykan. “Now they can, thanks to the Hittite dam.” The Hittites ruled much of what is now Turkey, Syria, and Iraq from 2000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. They specialized in chariot-making and iron-mongering.
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