Lake Nasser

Egypt’s Lake Nasser, as photographed in January 2005 from the International Space Station.

Lake Nasser’s vast reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Before construction, Sudan was against the building of Lake Nasser because it would encroach on land in the North, where the Nubian people lived. They would have to be resettled. In the end Sudan’s land near the area of Lake Nasser was mostly flooded by the lake.

The lake was created as a result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam across the waters of the Nile between 1958 and 1970. The lake is named after Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. And the second President of Egypt, who initiated the High Dam project. It was President Anwar Sadat who inaugurated the lake and dam in 1970.