Lake Volta is the largest reservoir by surface area in the world, and the fourth largest one by water volume. It is located completely within the country of Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

, and it has a surface area of about 8,502 km² (3,275 square miles)

1 E9 m²

To help compare orders of magnitude of different geographical regions, we list here areas between 1,000 km2 and 10,000 km2. See also areas of other orders of magnitude.* areas less than 1000 km2* 1,000 km2 is equal to:...

. Lake Volta lies along the Greenwich Meridian, and just six degrees of latitude north of the Equator

Equator

An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....

. The lake's northmost point is close to the town of Yapei, and its southmost extreme is at the Akosombo Dam

Akosombo Dam

The Akosombo Dam , is a hydroelectric dam on the Volta River in southeastern Ghana in the Akosombo gorge and part of the Volta River Authority. The construction of the dam flooded part of the Volta River Basin, and the subsequent creation of Lake Volta...

, 520 kilometers downstream from Yapei.