The Toshka Lakes of southern Egypt • Earth.com

Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features the Toshka Lakes in southern Egypt’s New Valley. When this image was captured on November of 2021, water levels in the lakes were exceptionally high following a spring season of floods in the region. 

According to NASA, the Tosha Lakes are natural depressions in the Sahara Desert that are filled by overflow from Lake Nasser, a 340-mile reservoir on the Nile River. 

Fluctuations in the flow of the Nile influence the rise and fall of the lakes. In 2017 and 2018, for example, the lakes had shrank to the point of becoming small remnants of water. 

This trend began to reverse in 2019, when abundant summer rainfall in Sudan raised the water level in Lake Nasser, which started filling up the Tosha Lakes as well. This pattern continued in 2020, as record-breaking floods triggered the highest water level ever recorded in Lake Nasser. Sudanese floods approached record levels again in 2021.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

News coming your way
The biggest news about our planet delivered to you each day