The Aswan dam or Sadd el-Ali, of its Egyptian name, is a colossal work and one of most impressive in the world in this domain. Thick of 980 metres at the base, of 40 metres at the top, it makes 3 600 metres length and 111 metres in height. As for the artificial lake that it created, the lake Nasser, with 500 km length of which 150 belong to Sudan, over a width going from 10 to 30 km, it is by its capacity of volume of water (157 billion m3) the second of the world after that of the Zambezi.