Lake Kossou

Where is Lake Kossou?

Countries on its shores: the Ivory Coast.

Largest body of water of: the Ivory Coast.

Middle of the lake: 7.15° N, 5.59° W

The story behind it

The Kossou Dam was finished in 1972. It is made of earth and rock, about 1 500 metres long and 58 metres high. When the lake is completely full, it is about 180 km long, up to 45 km wide and covers about 1 855 km² – more than three times the size of Lake Geneva. But the lake is often much smaller. There was too little rain, so it was only full for the first time in 1979, and for many years afterwards it covered only about half of its full size. Before the water rose, more than 70 000 people had to leave about 200 villages and move to 54 new villages. A power station at the dam makes electricity for the country, and fishers catch fish such as Nile perch and catfish in the lake. Côte d'Ivoire has no natural lake of this size; its largest body of water is this reservoir.

Find it on the globe

Lake Kossou is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.