Dukan Dam, Arch dam in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq

Dukan Dam is a concrete arch dam on the Little Zab, 360 metres long and 116.5 metres high, with a base 32.5 metres thick tapering to 6.2 metres at the crest. Its pale tan face curves between rocky cliffs, and a small angular building projects near the centre. A yellow-tan stone structure with rows of dark openings sits at the right base, with concrete pillars standing in the green water below.

Built between 1954 and 1959, Dukan Dam was Iraq's first dam, designed by the British firm Binnie & Partners; Geoffrey Binnie was the key engineer, and Imperial College's Professor Pippard and Letitia Chitty verified the arch design using a rubber model. Before Lake Dukan flooded the Ranya Plain, surveys recorded about 40 archaeological sites and excavations at Tell Bazmusian and Tell Shemshara revealed a second-millennium BCE temple and an early-sixth-millennium BCE village. Some 1,000–1,200 families from 50 villages were resettled west of the lake. The Russian-designed power station became fully operational in 1979.

Before Lake Dukan flooded the Ranya Plain, surveys recorded about 40 archaeological sites, and five were excavated: Tell Bazmusian, ed-Dem, Kamarian, Qarashina and Tell Shemshara. Tell Bazmusian held a temple from the second millennium BCE; Tell Shemshara yielded an early-sixth-millennium BCE village and a palace with clay tablets. Around 1,000–1,200 families from some 50 villages were resettled west of the lake.

The dam lies about 60 km northwest of Sulaymaniyah city on the Little Zab, reached by road from Sulaymaniyah or Ranya. The crest is 360 m long and 6.2 m wide at the top, with a small angular building projecting from the face near the centre. The powerhouse holds five Francis units of 80 MW each.

In 1990 the dam housed a group of foreign 'human shield' hostages, first in a nearby guest lodge, then in offices beside the cafeteria inside the dam and finally in prefabricated huts on the crest, to deter coalition air strikes in the coming 1991 Gulf War. They were released in December 1990.