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Lake Nasser / Lake Nubia
Artificial lake in Egypt and Sudan, about 565 km long, containing around 170,000 km³ of water. The lake is the result of the impounding from the Aswan High Dam starting in 1970.
The purpose of the lake is all centered around Egyptian interests, even if so large parts of it lies inside Sudan. Its water is used for hydroelectricity production, fishing, and irrigation. With Lake Nasser the water level of the Nile beneath Aswan is now regulated all the year through, while there were seasonal floods before. Due to this, 3,300 km² of new land have come under irrigation. Fish has been set out in the lake, and there have been a few modest attempts of land reclamation along the lake's shores.
The arrival of the Lake Nasser submerged large areas of Nubian territory in Sudan, for which little indemnity was paid. One of the greatest monuments of Pharaonic Egypt, the temples at Abu Simbel were saved by a UN funded team that worked on location from 1964 until 1968.
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By: Tore Kjeilen
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