Lake Serre-Ponçon is second largest artificial lake in Europe. It gathers the waters of the Durance and the Ubaye rivers, flowing down through the Hautes-Alpes and the Alpes du Sud to the Rhône River. The waters are dammed by the Barrage de Serre-Ponçon, a 123m high earth core dam, the biggest in Europe, erected between 1955 and 1961. It was created to control water flow after disastrous floods caused severe damage and loss of life in 1843 and 1856.
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