Great Man-Made River
A 6,000-mile system of natural and man-made waterways in the eastern U.S. and Canada.
via Wikipedia: Great Loop · see source
The Great Man-Made River Project is a network of pipes and aqueducts in Libya that transports fresh water from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System, a fossil aquifer in the south, to cities along the northern Mediterranean coast, including Tripoli and Benghazi. It is the largest irrigation project in the world and, according to its website, the largest underground network of pipes and aqueducts globally. The system pumps water over distances of up to 1,600 kilometers, supplying approximately 70% of all fresh water used in Libya. It comprises more than 1,300 wells, most exceeding 500 meters in depth, and delivers 6,500,000 cubic meters of fresh water daily to cities such as Tripoli, Benghazi, and Sirte. The late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi referred to it as the "Eighth Wonder of the World."
The project’s origins trace back to 1953, when oil exploration in southern Libya uncovered large quantities of potable fossil water. Conceived in the late 1960s, construction began in 1984 and was divided into five phases. The first phase required 85 million cubic meters of excavation and was inaugurated on 28 August 1991; the second phase, bringing water to Tripoli, was inaugurated on 1 September 1996. The project is owned by the Great Man-Made River Project Authority and was funded by the Gaddafi government. The primary contractor for the early phases was Dong Ah Consortium of South Korea, with Al Nahr Company Ltd. as the present main contractor. Imported materials came from Korea and Europe, primarily Italy, arriving via the port of Brega, while cathodic corrosion protection was supplied by an Australian company and delivered through Benghazi. The total cost was projected at over US$25 billion, completed without major foreign financial support or loans from world banks. Since 1990, UNESCO has provided training for engineers and technicians.
The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System accumulated during the last ice age and is not being replenished. At 2007 extraction rates, the water could last a thousand years, though other estimates suggest depletion within 60 to 100 years. Analysts note the project’s costs are 10% of those for desalination. One billion euros were invested in installing 50,000 artificial palm trees for water condensation, a project by Spanish engineer Antonio Ibáñez de Alba. During the First Libyan Civil War in 2011, a NATO air strike hit the Brega pipe pl
- type
- Infrastructure project
- country
- Libya
- total_cost
- More than US$25 billion
Lore & Background
There is no single route or itinerary to complete the loop. To avoid winter ice and summer hurricanes, boaters generally traverse the Great Lakes and Canadian waterways in summer, travel down the Mississippi or the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway in fall, cross the Gulf of Mexico and Florida in the winter, and travel up the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in the spring. Depending on speed of travel, the route can take as little as two months, but more typically it takes about a year to complete the trip. The route may also be completed in segments. The current overall record time for completing the great loop is 12 days, 18 hours, and 10 minutes. This run took place between July 9 and July 21, 2025, by a team of four on the Lady Lor, a 40-foot (12 m) Contender Express. The solo and single engine records are 19 days, 13 hours, and 1 minute. This run took place between July 12 and July 31, 2025, and was completed by Robert Youens, a 71-year-old adventurer from Austin, Texas. The run was completed in a 16-foot (4.9 m) johnboat, the Ageless Wanderer.
Reader's Guide
Assuming a boat ("Looper") begins in Chicago, either take the Chicago River and Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, or the Cal-Sag Channel to the Des Plaines River. The waterway passes Joliet and soon becomes the Illinois River. The Illinois River travels west, through several locks, then southward, through Peoria. At Grafton, Illinois, the Illinois River joins the Mississippi River. Travel south past St Louis and Cape Girardeau, Missouri. At the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Illinois, either continue down the Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana, or follow the more typical route of briefly going upstream on the Ohio River, then turn south down the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to the Gulf of Mexico. Because of heavy barge traffic, lack of marinas and scarcity of fuel sources on the Lower Mississippi River, most Loopers opt for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway passage. Traversing the 184 mile length of Kentucky Lake, continue up the Tennessee River and turn off onto the Tenn-Tom Waterway, near Iuka, Mississippi. A series of locks will lower boats to the Lower Tombigbee River, which eventually reaches Mobile, a major port on the Gulf of Mexico. Some boaters choose to continue up the Tennessee River to Chattanooga, TN and Knoxville, TN as a side-trip. Continuing eastward along the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) through the Florida Panhandle, at some point crossing the Gulf of Mexico to the main part of Florida. The ICW continues from St. Petersburg southward. Either cross South Florida via Lake Okeechobee, or go around it via the Florida Keys. The Loop swings northward up the ICW along Florida's Atlantic Coast, through coastal Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. To reach Chesapeake Bay, take the Dismal Swamp Canal or the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal. Travel north through Chesapeake Bay to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and into the Delaware Bay. After crossing Delaware Bay to Cape May, New Jersey, all but the smallest boats can travel in the Atlantic Ocean to New York City. Entering the Hudson River in New York, go to Waterford, New York. Here, some Loopers keep going north on the Champlain Canal and do a side-loop through Montreal, Canada. Most will traverse all or part of the Erie Canal. Shorter height boats may travel the entire canal to Buffalo, New York, then through Lake Erie, past Detroit, eventually reaching Lake Huron. Many others — especially those too tall for the Western Erie Canal Bridges — take the Oswego Canal north to Lake Ontario. This option allows Loopers to either take the Welland Canal to Lake Erie or to cruise along the scenic Trent-Severn Waterway in Ontario, Canada to reach Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. Lake Huron is a destination for all Looper boats, regardless of route and any side-trips. All boats have to transit the Straits of Mackinac at the top of Michigan's Lower Peninsula and enter Lake Michigan. An optional side-trip is going through the Soo Locks and visiting Lake Superior. Loopers have the option to follow either the Wisconsin or Michigan coasts as they make their way south on Lake Michigan and back to the starting point in Chicago.
Did You Know?
- The Great Man-Made River Project provides 70% of all fresh water used in Libya.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Great Man-Made River?
The Great Man-Made River is Libya's vast underground pipeline network that draws fossil groundwater from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System and routes it to coastal cities. It is widely recognized as the world's largest irrigation project tapping a non-renewable aquifer.
How much water does the Great Man-Made River deliver and how far does it travel?
The system pushes approximately 6.5 million cubic meters of water per day through 2,820 kilometers of buried pipeline. That water travels up to 1,600 kilometers northward to reach Mediterranean-side cities such as Tripoli and Benghazi.
What share of Libya's freshwater does the Great Man-Made River supply?
The project accounts for roughly 70 percent of all fresh water consumed in Libya, making it the country's single most critical water source for both domestic use and agriculture.
When did the Great Man-Made River project begin and what was its total cost?
Construction kicked off in 1984, and the completed infrastructure ultimately cost more than US$25 billion. It stands as one of the most expensive civil-engineering undertakings ever carried out in the Arab world.
Why is the Great Man-Made River considered significant in the world of waterways?
It is the largest irrigation scheme on Earth that relies on a fossil aquifer, meaning the water it delivers has been accumulating underground for thousands of years and is not naturally replenished. This makes it both an engineering marvel and a resource that, once exhausted, cannot be renewed.
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