Largest man made lake in the world

What is the largest man made lake in the world? Well it seems this question needs some clarity and more Google love. When you search for the largest man made lake in the world you seem to get a lot of different answers.

I have seen a variety of answers but very few of them seem right. So using the powers of interstellar divination and um Google I can with some authority state that the biggest man made lake in the world is Lake Kariba on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.

To quote Wikipedia:

By volume, Lake Kariba is the largest artificial lake and reservoir in the world. It is located on the Zambezi river, about halfway between the river's source and mouth, about 1300 kilometers upstream from the Indian Ocean, and lies along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Lake Kariba was filled between 1958 and 1963 following the completion of the Kariba Dam at its northeastern end, flooding the Kariba Gorge on the Zambezi River.

Sauce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Kariba

Obviously when you are working out the biggest you would use volume. However if you were perhaps judging the largest not by volume but by surface area then Lake Volta in Ghana comes first. Some quick figures for you.

List of lakes/reservoirs by volume

1. Lake Kariba (180 km3 or 43 cu mi; Zimbabwe, Zambia)
2. Bratsk Reservoir (169 km3 or 41 cu mi; Russia)
3. Lake Nasser (157 km3 or 38 cu mi; Egypt, Sudan)
4. Lake Volta (148 km3 or 36 cu mi; Ghana)
5. Manicouagan Reservoir (142 km3 or 34 cu mi; Canada)
6. Lake Guri (135 km3 or 32 cu mi; Venezuela)
7. Williston Lake (74 km3 or 18 cu mi; Canada)
8. Krasnoyarsk Reservoir (73 km3 or 18 cu mi; Russia)
9. Zeya Reservoir (68 km3 or 16 cu mi; Russia)

The following are the world's ten largest lakes/reservoirs by surface area:

1. Lake Volta (8,482 km2 or 3,275 sq mi; Ghana)
2. Smallwood Reservoir (6,527 km2 or 2,520 sq mi; Canada)
3. Kuybyshev Reservoir (6,450 km2 or 2,490 sq mi; Russia)
4. Lake Kariba (5,580 km2 or 2,150 sq mi; Zimbabwe, Zambia)
5. Bukhtarma Reservoir (5,490 km2 or 2,120 sq mi; Kazakhstan)
6. Bratsk Reservoir (5,426 km2 or 2,095 sq mi; Russia)
7. Lake Nasser (5,248 km2 or 2,026 sq mi; Egypt, Sudan)
8. Rybinsk Reservoir (4,580 km2 or 1,770 sq mi; Russia)
9. Caniapiscau Reservoir (4,318 km2 or 1,667 sq mi; Canada)
10. Lake Guri (4,250 km2 or 1,640 sq mi; Venezuela)

Hope you found this information useful!