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When Water Rises: A Journey Through Turkey’s Drowning Landscape

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Emin Özmen Every day, these four young men come on a hill to savour a melon freshly picked in their field to admire the view on Hasankeyf. As it to forget nothing of its details, its colours, its sounds, its (...)
Emin Özmen The remains of a sunken village near the Batman dam (completed in 1998). Of this seventy-five houses’ village, there is nothing left. Only two buildings partly damaged can be seen. Hewre, Turkey. (...)
Emin Özmen A cemetery in former Kumgolu village flooded by reservoir lake of Batman dam. Hewre, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen Turkey, Hewre, 2018. Electric poles still visible in former Kumgolu village flooded by reservoir lake of Batman dam. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen The remains of a sunken village near the Batman dam (completed in 1998). Of this seventy-five houses’ village, there is nothing left. Only two buildings partly damaged can be seen, including the re (...)
Emin Özmen Construction workers prepare Imam Abdullah mosauleum to move it to the "New Hasankeyf" The authorities have launched the move of eight emblematic monuments of the city near the "New Hasankeyf". Th (...)
Emin Özmen People visit "Kasri Rabi" caves that date back to 1270's. The city, whose first settlements date back 12,000 years, has an exceptional archaeological heritage: Assyrian, Roman and Ottoman monument (...)
Emin Özmen Turkey, Kesmekopru, 2018. Hakim flies his pigeons on his rooftop's house in Kesmekopru. He owns 15 pigeons and says that they are everything for him. It takes his stress away and he just want to sp (...)
Emin Özmen Kids rest near a small village pool. The village shares the same destiny with Hasankeyf and will be drown soon. After the completion of Ilisi Dam. A total of 70,000 people will be displaced and (...)
Emin Özmen Horses near Tigris River in Hasankeyf. The city, whose first settlements date back 12,000 years, has an exceptional archaeological heritage: Assyrian, Roman and Ottoman monuments, thousand-year-o (...)
Emin Özmen A kid sleeps in a house in Kesmekopru. Kesmekopru, Turkey. 2018. The village shares the same destiny with Hasankeyf and will be drown soon. After the completion of Ilisi Dam. A total of 70,000 p (...)
Emin Özmen Yunus, 22 years old, flies his birds on his house's roof. He's unemployed and have to take care of his family since his father died. For the moment they live thanks to their fig trees. They sell th (...)
Emin Özmen Women chat near a balcony in Kesmekopru. Kesmekopru, Turkey. 2018. The village shares the same destiny with Hasankeyf and will be drown soon. After the completion of Ilisi Dam. A total of 70,000 (...)
Emin Özmen Turkey, Kesmekopru, 2018. Yasin stands on his house rooftop with son in Kesmekopru. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen Turkey, Hasankeyf, 2018. Horses drink near typical straw huts cafés built on stilts on the Tigris River. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen Turkey, Kesmekopru, 2018. A todler sits on an Hasankey's terrace restaurant. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen Hundreds of caves newly discovered on the construction site of Hasankeyf, They're destined to be submerged in water in a few months. The city, whose first settlements date back 12,000 years, ha (...)
Emin Özmen Drying carpets seen on a house in the old Hasankeyf. Hasankeyf, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen People walk on makeshift bridge to have a drink in a traditional restaurant on Tigris river. Hasankeyf, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen Hundreds of caves newly discovered on the construction site of Hasankeyf, They're destined to be submerged in water in a few months. The city, whose first settlements date back 12,000 years, ha (...)
Emin Özmen The general panorama from Hasankeyf offers now a view on the "new city".... Hasankeyf, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen General view of New Hasankeyf. The approximately 6,000 people threatened by the submergence had their homes bought by the government, which built a new town less than two kilometers away from the (...)
Emin Özmen Hasan is the owner of a straw huts built on stilts. He has worked and lived here for 19 years. He doesn't know what he'll do once the city is sunken. City officials told him not to worry. Thanks to (...)
Emin Özmen People shoot at glass bottles near the Tigris River. Hasankeyf, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen Children play in the water, on the roof of a partially sunken mosque in Savasan. The village (only accessible by boat) attracts all the attention. More than 200,000 visitors come every year to adm (...)
Emin Özmen Men play cards in a small tea house of Hasankeyf old town. The city, whose first settlements date back 12,000 years, has an exceptional archaeological heritage: Assyrian, Roman and Ottoman monume (...)
Emin Özmen Kids on a boat heading to Savasan village in old Halfeti. The village (only accessible by boat) attracts all the attention. More than 200,000 visitors come every year to admire a minaret’s visibl (...)
Emin Özmen Turkey, Hasankeyf, 2018. A view in the interior of a small restaurant in Hasankeyf. The city, whose first settlements date back 12,000 years, has an exceptional archaeological heritage: Assyrian, (...)
Emin Özmen Local tourists visit former village of Savacan flooded by the reservoir lake of Birecik dam on Euphrates river. Halfeti, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen A general view of "New Halfeti". Following the construction of the Birecik dam downstream and the flooding of the area in 2000, "old Halfeti" 's inhabitants were evacuated. They now live 8 kilome (...)
Emin Özmen Turkey, Hasankeyf, 2018. Young men stand next to caves, newly discovered on the construction site. They're destined to be submerged in water in a few months. The city, whose first settlements date (...)
Emin Özmen General view of Ataturk dam, one of the largest dams in the country. It is located on the Euphrates river in Bozova (south-east Turkey). Construction of the dam and the hydroelectric power project (...)
Emin Özmen A family stands near their sunken village close to Samsat. Samsat was built in the 1980s to accommodate the inhabitants of the ancient village submerged by the waters of Atatürk dam’s reservoir in (...)
Emin Özmen General view near Ataturk dam, the biggest hydroelectric power plant on Euphrates on river and in Turkey. Adiyaman, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen A few kilometers away from Atatürk Dam, under the heat, a man washes his car with his son in the Euphrates River. Bozova, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen People cross Euphrates River by boat, the fastest way to reach the opposite bank. She enjoys the view of the Keban Dam reservoir lake. The Dam, filled from 1973, is the first major one built on (...)
Emin Özmen People travel across Euphrates river on reservoir lake of Keban Dam, the first hydroelectric powerplant on Euphrates river which has built between 1965 and 1975. Elazig, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen Turkey, Halfeti, 2018. A general view of "New Halfeti". Following the construction of the Birecik dam downstream and the flooding of the area in 2000, "old Halfeti" 's inhabitants were evacuated. (...)
Emin Özmen People work near Zeynel Bey mausoleum, just settled in its new place in the "New Hasankeyf" The authorities have launched the move of eight emblematic monuments of the city near the "New Hasankey (...)
Emin Özmen Turkey, Hasankeyf, 2018. Local tourists came to see the city before it disappeared under water. On the right, we can see a part of the cliff destroyed with dynamite. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen Drying carpets seen on a house in the old Hasankeyf. Hasankeyf, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen Turkey, Hasankeyf, 2018. Inside a typical tea house where nothing seems to have changed since the 1960s. The city, whose first settlements date back 12,000 years, has an exceptional archaeological (...)
Emin Özmen Turkey, Hasankeyf, 2018. A man prays in a restaurant. The city, whose first settlements date back 12,000 years, has an exceptional archaeological heritage: Assyrian, Roman and Ottoman monuments, t (...)
Emin Özmen People walk on a makeshift bridge that lead to a restaurant settled on the Tigris River. A few local tourists enjoy the freshness of the evening. The city, whose first settlements date back 12,000 (...)
Emin Özmen A family cross the Tigris River on a makeshift boat near Hasankeyf. Hasankeyf, Turkey. 2018. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos
Emin Özmen Turkey, Hasankeyf, 2018. A man cleans up a shooting range made of empty bottles near Tigris River, in the millennial city of Hasankeyf. © Emin Özmen | Magnum Photos