Cahora Bassa Dam under construction.

The dam began to fill in December 1974
after construction was commenced in
1969 by the Portuguese colonial government of Mozambique (Portugal), and is 171 metres (561 ft) high by 303
metres (994 ft) wide at the crest. Built
in the first half of the 1970s when
Mozambique was still a Portuguese
territory, long stretches of the power
transmission lines were sabotaged during 16 years of Mozambican Civil War which ended in 1992. The lake has reached a maximum
length and width of approximately 250
kilometres (160 mi) and 38 kilometres
(24 mi) respectively, flooding an area of
2,700 square kilometres (1,000 sq mi)
with an average depth of 20.9 metres