King Talal Dam Key Facts
Name	King Talal Dam
Dam Dam A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...  Type	Earthfill
Height (above riverbed)	92 metres
Length	- metres
Area at retention level	- km²
Catchment Area	- km²
Gross Storage Capacity	86,000,000 m³
Live Storage Capacity	78,000,000 m³
Dead Storage	8,000,000 m³
Retention Level	- metres amsl
Main Spillway Capacity	- million ft³/s
Design Flood Discharge	- million ft³/s
Hydropower Generation	- MW
Maximum Discharge	- million ft³/s
Total Volume of Dam	- million cubic metres

The King Talal Dam is a large dam in the hills of northern Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

, across the Zarqa River

Zarqa River

The Zarqa River is the second largest tributary of the lower Jordan River, after the Yarmouk River. It is the third largest river in the region by annual discharge, and its watershed encompasses the most densely populated areas east of the Jordan River...

.

The King Talal dam was started in 1971, with the original construction being completed in 1977. In 1984, to meet the country's increased water demands, work to raise the dam further was begun, a project that was completed in 1988 at a cost of $90 million.

The dam is named after King Talal of Jordan, a monarch who briefly reigned from July 20, 1951 to August 11, 1952. He was the grandfather of Jordan's present king, King Abdullah II.

The King Talal Dam is a big contribution to renewable energy in Jordan.

Before the water of the Zarqa river became controlled by the dam the lower river could only be passed at fords mentioned in ancient literature. A photograph of 1929 shows the archaeologist William F. Albright

William F. Albright

William Foxwell Albright was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist and expert on ceramics. From the early twentieth century until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the universally acknowledged founder of the Biblical archaeology movement...

 passing the river by a horse.

Literature:
W.F. ALBRIGHT, New Israelite and Pre-Israelite Sites: The Spring Trip of 1929: BASOR 35 (1935) 1-14 (11).

External links

• Haddadin, Dr Munther, The Socio-Economic Role of The King Talal dam in the Kingdom of Jordan, from the Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...