The Serre-Ponçon dam is visible from the Ivan Wilhelm belvedere located at the foot of the Muséoscope du Lac at an altitude of 2,887 ft (880 m) on the departmental road coming from Chorges. This panoramic viewpoint overlooking the dam allows perceiving its power and importance for the Durance valley and all of Provence. The lookout bears the name of Ivan Wilhelm, the civil engineer who created the lake. At the end of the 19th century, he had the idea of taming the energy of the Durance and imagined the dam in 1909. Wilhelm never witnessed the realization of his project, whose work did not begin until 1955, as he died four years earlier.