Photographer: Mustafa Bilge Satkin

Project title: Drowned History

A view of 12000 years old Hasankeyf, before it is flooded. Evidence of numerous civilizations vanished under the reservoir of the Dam. The city, also known as Rock Fortress, is one of the oldest, continuously inhabited settlements in the world, spanning an estimated 12,000 years. Being home to thousands of human-made caves, hundreds of medieval monuments, and a unique canyon ecosystem in the Tigris Valley, this urban establishment was like an open air-museum. The fact is, the river ensouled life on its banks once and this time it swallowed centuries of history and nature. The dam built inundated the site’s caves and most of its structures, it also threatened hundreds of species.