IRAQ

IRAQ / العراق

Hydroelectric Dam in the Taksim Tharthar-Euphrates Canal.
Official stamp issued in 08.1978.
Face value: 5 Iraqi fils.
Printing: Photogravure.

Catalogs
- Michel No. D364.
- Scott No. O332.
- Stanley Gibbons No. O1338.
- Yvert et Tellier No. S286.

The Tharthar or Altharthar, known in Iraq as Buhayrat ath-Tharthar (Arabic: بحيرة الثرثار), is an artificial lake opened in 1956, situated northwest of Saladin Governorate and south of the city of Samarra, about 90 km (56 mi) northwest of Baghdad, between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. The lake has an artificial outlet built in 1956 called Taksim Tharthar Canal, which drains to the Euphrates River directly. The canal, after 28 km (17.4 mi) from its outlet, forks to another canal that returns water back to the Tigris River. The dam, with six gates, built in 1976, serves to regulate the outflow of water from the lake and, at the same time, to produce electricity.

IRAQ

IRAQ / العراق

9th Anniversary of the July 14 Revolution.
Opening of Um Qasr Port.
Last stamp in a set of 4, issued on 14.07.1967.
Face value: 40 Iraqi fils.
Printed by De la Rue.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 40 x 25 mm.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 491.
- Scott No. 442.
- StampWorld No. 488.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 762.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 477.

Um Qasr port is Iraq's is strategically important, located on the western edge of the al-Faw peninsula, where the mouth of the Shatt al Arab waterway enters the Persian Gulf. It is separated from the border of Kuwait by a small inlet. Um Qasr was originally a small fishing town, but was said to have been the site of Alexander the Great's landing in Mesopotamia in 325 BC. During the Second World War a temporary port was established there by the Allies to unload supplies to dispatch to the Soviet Union. In 1950s the government of King Faisal II sought to establish a permanent port there in the 1950s, and In 1958 after the coup d'etat of the Iraqi Army known as the July 14 Revolution, the Iraqi Navy established a base there. The port opened for business in July 1967. The Battle of Umm Qasr (March 2003) was the first military confrontation in the Iraq War, with its objective the capture of the port. On 23 May 2003, control of the facility was transferred from the Spanish Army operating under the British Royal Marines. The restoration works of the port were carried out between January and May 2004.