Valide Dam (Valide Bendi) in Belgrade Forest, İstanbul. I took the video and the photo on February 18, 2023.
Valide Dam (Valide Bendi)
The Valide Dam (or Valide Sultan Dam) is located to the north of Bahçeköy in Sarıyer, within the Bentler Nature Park that forms a part of the Belgrade Forest.
The Ottoman Sultan Selim III (reigned 1789-1807) constructed the Valide Dam in 1796 with the purpose of supplying water to the donations in Eyüp (a district of the city of Istanbul that extends from the Golden Horn all the way to the shore of the Black Sea) that belonged to his mother, Mihrişah Sultan (c. 1745-1805), who held the title of Valide Sultan during his reign.
The dam has a catchment area of 1.825 km2 (0.705 sq mi). It is a solid gravity dam constructed in masonry with its crest and the waterside wall covered by marble. Two buttresses at 6.30 meters (20.7 ft) distance at the toe are attached to the downstream wall to reinforce the structure.
The height of the dam is 11.25 meters (36.9 feet) from the thalweg. It is 103.90 meters (340.9 feet) long at crest. The crest is 4.72 meters (15.5 feet) and the base is 6.30 meters (20.7 feet) wide. The dam has a reservoir capacity of 255,000 m3 (9,000,000 cu ft).
Sources
- Valide Dam on Wikipedia
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