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Location of the Toshka Lakes and Lake Nasser in Egypt.

Photograph of the Toshka Lakes taken Dec. 2002 from the International Space Station looking NE. Lake Nasser is the very long lake that lies east of the lakes. Wadi Toshka is the large bay in Lake Nasser directly east of the Toshka lakes. The Eastern Desert of Egypt can be seen east of Lake Nasser

Toshka Lakes (Arabic: توشكة‎) is the name given to recently formed endorheic lakes in the Sahara Desert of Egypt.

The Aswan High Dam, constructed in Egypt in 1964-1968, created Lake Nasser, with a maximum water level of 183 m above sea level. In 1978 Egypt began building the Sadat Canal NW from Lake Nasser through Wadi Toshka to allow water levels higher than 178 m to be drained off into a depression at the south end of the Eocene limestone plateau. In the late 1990s, water began flowing through the Sadat Canal into the Western Desert. Astronauts began noticing the first, easternmost lake growing in November 1998. By late 1999, three additional lakes formed successively westward, and the westernmost lake started forming sometime between September 2000 and March 2001. These lakes are not yet named individually. In total, the Toshka Lakes cover approximately 1300 square kilometers (502 mi²). As of as of 2006^[update] the levels of the lakes are lower than in 2001, and areas of wetlands and sand dunes have formed between the former and present shorelines. A minor lake downstream of the three larger lakes has completely dried out. The levels of the lakes vary between 176 m for the one closest Lake Nasser to 144 m for the one furthest downstreams.

The situation of not having a river (the Nile) flow through the lowest region in the area comes from the dryness of the Sahara Desert, the youthfullness of this segment of the Nile, and the fact that the Toshka Depression lies within the seismically active Nubian Swell.

Landsat mosaic of Toshka Lakes (April 2003). False-color image, with bands 7-4-2 assigned to R-G-B).

The Egyptian government is developing the surrounding region, also known as the "New Valley Project". The plan is to extend the water way to the Kharga oasis.

See also Lakes of Egypt.

[edit] External links

• [1] Astronaut photography of Toshka Lake formation 1998-1999.
• [2] March 2002 MODIS 'true color' image of Toshka Lakes and vicinity.
• [3] Jan. 2003 MODIS false color image of the Toshka Lakes.
• [4] This fly-through is of the area imaged by satellites before the lakes formed.
• [5] Astronaut photography documenting the formation of the westernmost lake in 2001.
• [6] Astronaut photography documenting shrinking of the lakes in late 2005.
• [7] CEO (Crew Earth Observation) on the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth (Toshka, Egypt)