In short
Lake Kariba is the world's largest man-made lake and reservoir by volume.
Lake Kariba is the world's largest man-made lake and reservoir by volume. It lies 1,300 kilometers upstream from the Indian Ocean, along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The name 'Kariba' is thought to be a corruption of a local word 'Kariva' which means "little trap". It is believed when those who wished to construct the dam wall wanted to explain the nature of the project to the locals, they emphasised that they wanted to build a little water trap-Kariva.
Kariba is now a small and spread-out resort town which is the starting point for tourism activities centered on the lake of the same name and also a gateway to Mana Pools and Matusadonha. It has since become one of the most sought after holiday destination in Zimbabwe and the region. Its huge volumes of water creates the boundary between Zimbabwe and Zambia and the extensive and attractive shorelines has become home to large populations of wildlife and its islands are dotted in a picture-postcard deep blue sea against a backdrop of high escarpment mountain ranges on each side. Amazing sunsets over the lake have become a legendary feature of a Kariba stay, turning the calm water golden to shot silk in the dusk with the beauty of bare tree branches silhouetted in the foreground.
