Thursday, February 21, 2013

Kariba Dam in Zambia


Kariba Dam with all six gates open

postmarked in 1969 with a Zambia Dancer 8n stamp

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The Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is one of the largest dams in the world, standing 128 m (420 ft) tall and 579 m (1,900 ft) long.

The double curvature concrete arch dam was constructed between 1955 and 1959 at a cost of $135,000,000 for the first stage. Final construction and the addition of the Kariba North Power cavern was not completed until 1977 due to largely political problems for a total cost of $480,000,000.

Eighty-six men lost their lives during construction.

5 comments:

ONeal said...

How fun would it be to drive over that dam?! Cool stamp.

Postcard Blogger said...

My hands would be in the air and I would be screaming Weeeeeeeee! Lol

ONeal said...

I hope that would be a fun "weeeeee!" and not one of terror! LOL

Postcard Blogger said...

A fun one for sure!!!!

ONeal said...

Ok, good. It would be a shame to go all the way to Zambia just to have the daylights scared out of you. LOL