Lake Nasser was created by the Aswan High Dam and is shared by Egypt and Sudan.
The reservoir formed after the dam was built across the Nile in the 1960s. Most of the reservoir lies in Egypt, where it is called Lake Nasser; the portion south of the border in Sudan is commonly called Lake Nubia. Together, the waters form one of Africa’s largest artificial lakes by surface area.
The dam regulates Nile flooding, stores water for irrigation and supports hydroelectric generation. Its creation also submerged parts of ancient Nubia and threatened major archaeological sites. The international campaign to relocate the temples at Abu Simbel became one of the best-known heritage-preservation projects of the twentieth century.
Lake Nasser is sometimes confused with Lake Volta or Lake Kariba, two other enormous African reservoirs. Those reservoirs were formed by different dams and lie in Ghana and on the Zambia–Zimbabwe border, respectively.