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Bodies of Water

Lake Kariba

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Lake Kariba is the world's largest artificial lake and reservoir by volume, formed on the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe by the Kariba Dam, which filled the lake between 1958 and 1963 while submerging the Kariba Gorge and displacing many communities. It holds a capacity of about 180 cubic kilometers of water across a surface area of 5,580 square kilometers, stretching 223 kilometers long and up to 40 kilometers wide, with an average depth of 29 meters and a maximum depth of 97 meters. Its total water volume is roughly four times that held behind China's Three Gorges Dam, and towns including Siavonga and Sinazongwe grew up on its shores to accommodate people displaced by its filling.

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