[4] This disappointing performance can be attributed to the lower than expected water flow in the Euphrates as it enters Syria from Turkey.

[7][8] Among the oldest excavated and now flooded sites is Jerf el Ahmar, where a French mission worked between 1995 and 1999.

In the later occupation levels of the site, a number of buildings have been excavated that were partly dug into the soil and had stone walls.

Their size, internal division, decoration and the finds of human skulls as foundation deposits led the excavators to suggest that these buildings had a communal function.

[9] These finds were deemed so important that in 1999, flooding of the Tishrin Dam Reservoir was postponed for two weeks so that three houses could be dismantled and rebuilt in a museum near the site.

[13] The dam's capture cut off a major government supply line to and from Raqqa, while unifying stretches of rebel territory on either side of the Euphrates River.

[14] The dam's capture also cut off one of the last government supply lines to Aleppo, further encircling soldiers fighting in the city.