Lake Nasser

Lake Nasser is a large reservoir spanning southern Egypt and northern Sudan, created by the Aswan High Dam, which was completed in 1970 and formally inaugurated in 1971. It covers a surface area of about 5,250 square kilometers, extends up to 550 kilometers in length and 35 kilometers in width, and holds a storage capacity of roughly 132 cubic kilometers of water at a maximum depth of 130 meters. The reservoir supplies irrigation water that supports roughly a quarter of Egypt's working population in agriculture, generates about 2.1 gigawatts of hydroelectric power and sustains a fishing industry with 52 recorded species, but its creation displaced tens of thousands of Nubian residents and required an international effort to relocate threatened monuments, including the temples of Abu Simbel.