As the plans for the High Dam were drawn up, worldwide attention focused on the many valuable and irreplaceable ancient monuments that would be destroyed by the waters of Lake Nasser.

BBC: Abu Simbel: The great temple of Egypt

Across all of Africa the impact of human activity is clear - whether in the newly irrigated areas created by the waters of the Nile, turning huge areas of the desert around Egypt's lake Nasser green, or the urban sprawl of Dakar, across the Cap Vert peninsula in Senegal.

BBC: Atlas shows vanishing landscape