Zimbabwe and Zambia are home to the world’s largest man-made lake; Lake Kariba.
Covering a surface area of 5,580km2, it is four times larger than the Three Gorges Dam in China.
Measuring 223km in length and 40km in width, at full capacity, Lake Kariba can hold up to 185 cubic kilometres (150,000,000 acre·ft) of water.
Such is the magnitude of the lake; it helps generate huge amounts of precipitation to the area effectively creating its own micro-climate.
Today the lake supports a vibrant ecosystem with a thriving biodiversity on land and on water.
But when did it all start and why?
Lake Kariba lies on what used to be the Kariba Gorge, a large natural canyon through which flowed the Zambezi River - Africa’s fourth largest river.
The idea was to build a hydroelectric dam that would make use of and harness the power of fast moving water to generate electricity to parts of Southern and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia and Zimbabwe as they are known today).
The gorge was filled up between 1958 and 1963, however, the notion of utilising the landscape to harness energy had been long in the making.
As far back as 1941, a survey of Kariba Gorge was conducted to gauge its potential for what would be the ground-breaking construction of a hydroelectric dam.
Construction of the damn began in 1955 and was completed in 1959, however, it took a further four years for the water to reach its full capacity.
It stands to reason that the world's largest man-made reservoir is supported by the world's largest man-made dam.
The reinforced double concrete arch dam stands at an impressive 128m tall and 579m long.
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