Oymapinar Dam is an arch dam built on the Manavgat river in Turkey in 1984. It is an arch dam in design, 185 m in height, built to generate hydroelectric power.
Oymapınar Dam is located 12 km north of Manavgat Waterfall. It is an artificial, freshwater dam with a capacity of 300 million cubic meters. It is 23 km upstream of Manavgat town 40 km east of city of Antalya in southern Turkey and located on the Manavgat River which runs into the Mediterranean.
Description
The dam has four underground turbines with a total capacity of 540 megawatts. When built in 1984 it was the third largest dam in Turkey. As more dams have been built, it is the fifth largest.
Because of the arch design, the force of water pushing against the dam compacts the dam and strengthens it. The weight of the dam structure pushes it down firmly into the underlying rock. This design is ideal for dams built in rocky narrow gorges.
Construction
The dam was designed in the USSR and built by Bilfinger Berger and completed in 1984.