Submerging villages of Turkey - in pictures

Seen here in July 2013 is a restaurant terrace in the Turkish town of Hasankeyf on the banks of the Tigris river. The Ilisu Dam project due to be completed in 2016, will flood 80 per cent of the ancient monuments of Hasankeyf.

Men on a ferry boat travelling across the Euphrates river near the Keban dam in eastern Anatolia in May 2014. The Keban dam was the first of several large-scale dams to be built on the Euphrates by Turkey.

Boys standing on top of a hill dominating the banks of the Tigris river in March 2013. The river is predominant in the life of the inhabitants of the Kesmeköprü region.

The villagers of Savaçan were evacuated to another village, Karaotlak, when the Birecik Dam was built and flooded in the 1990s.

As part of the Ilisu dam project, the ancient monuments of Hasankeyf along with 52 other villages and 15 small towns will be submmerged by 2016.

Local girls from the village of Hasankeyf in July 2013.

A man fishing in the waters of the Batman dam, Turkey in May 2014. The dam was built between 1986 and 1999.

A boat tour is being renovated on the banks of the reservoir lake of the Birecik Dam in Halfeti, Turkey.

Children playing by the banks of the Tigris river in July 2013 in the region of Hasankeyf.

A herd of cattle grazing by the banks of the Tigris river towards the village of Kesmeköprü.

A man is sitting at a cafe in the village of Hasankeyf in March 2013. The Ilisu dam project is expected to destroy 400km of the Tigris river’s ecosystem.

In 2006, heavy flooding of the Batman river required the operation of the Robin spillway to provide relief for the Batman dam. Seen here, men are swimming in the waters of the Batman dam.

A man is paddling in a boat across the Euphrates river near the Keban dam in eastern Anatolia in May 2014.

A man is steps out of his door one evening in July 2013. The number written outside his house is for the municipality to know which house belongs to whom so they can financially compensate the house owners from Hasankeyf.

Halfeti was a small farming district on the east bank of the River Euphrates which was partly submerged in the 1990s. The town was moved to the village of Karaotlak - also called New Halfeti - where the building of the new town is now complete. View of New Halfeti in Karaotlak in May 2014

A man is sitting by the road along the bridge leading to Hasankeyf over the Tigris.

View on a terrace of a restaurant above the Tigris in Hasankeyf.

The ancient monuments of Hasankeyf risk being submerged in water as Turkey presses on with its controversial Guneydogu Anadolu Projesi — or Southeastern Anatolia Project.

All photos by Mathias Depardon for The National