Lake Nasser is a massive reservoir that stretches across southern Egypt and northern Sudan. This expansive body of water was created by the construction of the Aswan High Dam and plays a crucial role in regulating the Nile River’s flow.
According to express.co.uk, created by the construction of the Aswan High Dam between 1960 and 1970, it is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world.
The lake is some 298 miles long and 9.9 miles across at its widest point, which lies near the Tropic of Cancer. It covers a total surface area of 2,030 square miles and has a storage capacity of around 32 cubic miles of water, or 132 cubic kilometres.
Before its creation, the project faced strong opposition, as it would require many people to be resettled.
The lake has become an important economic resource in Egypt, improving agriculture and promoting robust fishing and tourism industries.
Strictly speaking, “Lake Nasser” refers only to the much larger portion of the lake found in Egyptian territory, which makes up 83 percent of the total. The Sudanese prefer to call their smaller body of water Lake Nubia.
Before the construction of the Aswan High Dam, the area that the lake now occupies was a significant part of the region of Nubia, home to several pharaohs of Egypt and empires including the Kush, which existed from around 780 BC to 350 AD.
The construction of the dam began in 1960 at the behest of Lake Nasser’s namesake and the second president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser. Finished in 1970, the dam across the Nile was built to replace the insufficient Aswan Low Dam built in 1902.
The goals of the High Dam and the reservoir were to create a more stable source of water, to increase agricultural production and to produce electricity for Egypt. It produces about 2.1 gigawatts of hydroelectricity, providing a significant percentage of Egypt’s electricity needs – up to half in 1970.
The project initially faced opposition from Sudan as it would encroach on land in the northern part of the country, where tens of thousands of Nubian people lived (a Nilo-Saharan speaking ethnic group indigenous to the region and believed to be one of the earliest cradles of civilisation), who would have to be resettled.
In the end, Sudan’s land near the area of Lake Nasser was mostly flooded by the lake.
