Archaeologists in drought-hit Iraq have discovered 40 ancient tombs after water levels in the country’s largest reservoir declined, according to an antiquities official.

The tombs, believed to be more than 2,300 years old, were unearthed at the edges of the Mosul Dam reservoir in the Khanke region of Duhok province in the country’s north.

“So far, we have discovered approximately 40 tombs,” Bekas Brefkany, the director of antiquities in Duhok and leader of the archaeological work at the site, said on Saturday.

A worker at the archaeological site in Iraq [Ismael Adnan/AFP]
His team surveyed the area in 2023 but spotted only parts of a few tombs. They were able to work on the site only when water levels dropped “to their lowest” this year, Brefkany said.

‘Drought allows us to do excavation work’

In recent years, archaeologists have uncovered ruins dating back thousands of years in the same area, as a result of droughts that have plagued Iraq for five consecutive years.

“The droughts have a significant impact on many aspects, like agriculture and electricity. But, for us archaeologists … it allows us to do excavation work,” Brefkany said.

Officials and workers at the site on the banks of Mosul Dam in Iraq [Ismael Adnan/AFP]
The newly discovered tombs are believed to date back to the Hellenistic or Hellenistic-Seleucid period, according to Brefkany.

He added that his team is working to excavate the tombs to transfer them to the Duhok Museum for further study and preservation, before the area is submerged again.

Iraq, which is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, has been facing rising temperatures, chronic water shortages and year-on-year droughts.

Authorities have warned that this year has been one of the driest since 1933 and that water reserves were down to only 8 percent of their full capacity.

They also blame upstream dams built in neighbouring Iran and Turkiye for dramatically lowering the flow of the once-mighty rivers Tigris and Euphrates, which have irrigated Iraq for millennia.