14/06/2026
The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydropower project, located on the Yangtze River in Hubei Province, China. 🌍🇨🇳
📌The installed capacity is 22,500 MW. Its height is 181 m and length is 2,335 m. The volume of the dam is 27.2 million cubic metres. It has 32 turbines each of 700 MW and 2 turbines of Francis-type with 50 MW each.
The dam includes a giant elevator-like system that can lift ships over 100 meters vertically, allowing vessels to bypass the dam much faster than using the locks.
💡The surface area of the reservoir is 1,084 square km with a maximum length of 600 km. When the reservoir is full, it holds about 39 billion cubic meters of water. Scientists have estimated that moving such a huge mass of water slightly changes Earth's moment of inertia, making the day longer by a tiny fraction of a millisecond.⛅🕒
The main purpose of this dam is flood control, power and navigation. The construction began on December 14, 1994 and the opening date was in 2003.
To create the reservoir, approximately 1.3 million people had to move from towns and villages that would be submerged. The reservoir flooded hundreds of settlements and numerous historical and archaeological locations, 🚩though many artifacts were relocated before flooding.
A common myth🧜♀️ says it is clearly visible from space. 🌌 In reality, astronauts can sometimes identify it under favorable conditions, but it is not as obvious as many people think. 👥
It's one of those projects that is simultaneously an engineering marvel, an environmental debate, and a major chapter in modern Chinese history. 🇨🇳
