Upper Sûre Lake

Where is Upper Sûre Lake?

Countries on its shores: Luxembourg.

Largest body of water of: Luxembourg.

Middle of the lake: 49.91° N, 5.88° E

The story behind it

From 1955 to 1958, workers built a curved concrete wall, 47 metres high, across the Sûre River at Esch-sur-Sûre. In 1959 the valley behind it was flooded, and the Upper Sûre Lake was born. It is up to 43 metres deep, holds about 60 million cubic metres of water, and its winding shore is 48 kilometres long. The lake is very important for Luxembourg: its water is cleaned and sent to homes, and in 2007 about 80 out of every 100 people in the country got drinking water from this supply. The dam also makes electricity. The water is very clean, so people come to sail, paddle canoes and kayaks, and divers can even explore structures that were flooded long ago, 30 metres down. The lake and its surroundings form a nature park, and the lake is a protected wetland. Luxembourg has no natural lake of this size; the largest body of water in Luxembourg is this reservoir.

Find it on the globe

Upper Sûre Lake 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.