Irrigation from Lake Nasser, one of the world’s largest man-made lakes, has increased the amount of arable land and crop production in Egypt.
In the 1950s, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser set out to alleviate the cyclic flooding and drought periods in the Nile River region, build the agricultural economy and food supplies, and provide hydroelectric power to towns. Nasser’s government then designed a large dam to tame the mighty Nile River. The Aswan High Dam took a decade to build. The rockfill dam used around 44 million cubic meters (57 million cubic yards) of Earth and rock for its construction—a mass sixteen times greater than Great Pyramid of Giza. It offered better control of the flood cycles and more water storage than its predecessor, the Aswan Low Dam, to the north.
The new 111-meter (360-foot) tall dam created one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Named for the Egyptian President, Lake Nasser stretches 480 kilometers (300 miles) long and 16 kilometers (10 miles) wide. Storing more than 100 cubic kilometers (24 cubic miles) of water, the lake took approximately six years to fill.
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