Tigris-euphrates River System, Physiography of the Euphrates

The headwaters of the Euphrates are the Murat and the Karasu rivers in the Armenian Highland of northeastern Turkey. Considerably altered in the 20th century by water-control projects, they join to form the Euphrates at Keban, near Elazig, where the Keban Dam, completed in 1974, spans a deep gorge. The river breaks through the Taurus Mountains and descends to the high plain of