Lesotho

Kingdom of Lesotho is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa It is just over 30,000 km² in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of nations. The name "Lesotho" translates roughly into "the land of the people who speak Sesotho".

The postcard above shows the Katse Dam. It is a concrete arche dam on the Malibamat'so River in Lesotho. The potential of the project was identified by the South African Civil Engineer Ninham Shand as a possible means to supplement the water supply to South Africa. The World Bank arranged for a treaty between the then-Apartheid government of South Africa and its much smaller neighbor, Lesotho, allowing execution of the project to proceed. The dam was completed in 1996 and the reservoir filled with water by 1997. Water delivery officially began on 22. January 1998. The dam currently supplies about 30 m³/s of water to South Africa, which pays Lesotho $35 million per year, plus a variable royalty based on calculated water usage benefits.

Dam features:

• Height - 185 m (second largest in Africa)
• Crest length - 710 m
• Design - double arch, concrete
• Concrete - 2,320,000 cubic meters
• 1993 meters above sea level (highest Dam in Africa)

This is one of my favourite postcards ever. The view is absolutely gorgeous! Julius, who sent me this postcard, used 2 neat stamps too. One is showing beautiful frog. :) That stamps is issued in set of 4, to commemorate Lesotho's Post Office participation in the International Stamp Exhibition, Phila Korea 1994. It shows Common River Frog (Rana angolensis). Thanks Julius!