Lake · Libya
Wadi Qattara Reservoir
The Wadi Qattara Reservoir is a man-made lake about 33 km east of Benghazi in Libya. It forms behind a dam built across a wadi, a valley that carries water only after rain.
Picture credit: giannip46 (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Wadi Qattara Reservoir?
Countries on its shores: Libya.
Largest body of water of: Libya.
Middle of the lake: 32.03° N, 20.41° E
The story behind it
Libya has no natural lake of this size; its largest body of water is this reservoir. In the desert there are small salt lakes, such as the Ubari lakes between tall sand dunes, but the best known of them, Gaberoun, is only about 300 metres long. The Wadi Qattara Dam was built between 1968 and 1971. It is 55 metres high and 365 metres long. It was built to protect the Benghazi area from floods, like those of 1938 and 1954, and to store water for farming. When the reservoir is full, it covers about 18 km² and holds 135 million cubic metres of water. But it is usually far from full: on average it stores only about 12 million cubic metres. In 1979 a big flood badly damaged the dam, and it was repaired between 2000 and 2004.
Find it on the globe
Wadi Qattara Reservoir 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.
Questions children ask
How big is the Wadi Qattara Reservoir?
When it is full, the reservoir covers about 18 km² and holds 135 million cubic metres of water. Usually it holds much less, so its surface is often smaller.
Why was the dam built?
Floods had damaged the Benghazi area in 1938 and 1954, and the dam holds back such floods. It also stores water for farming.
Does Libya have natural lakes?
Yes, but they are small. The Ubari lakes lie between sand dunes in the Sahara, and their water is very salty – in some of them about five times saltier than seawater.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
Last checked: