Egypt is a Country of marvel, culture, rich and unique history and is rightfully well known for all of that. Although the monuments of Ancient Egypt of is the most famous among the Egyptian catalogue of astonishing feats such as the Great Giza pyramids, The nighty Sphinx amongst others, One of the rarely mentioned and more modern accomplishments of Egypt is the Aswan High Dam, a mechanical blessing that is a prime source of both drinking water & Electricity for this great Nation. A manifestation of, resilience, political fennec, and desire to holds one’s fate in his own hand and the birth of a new Egypt we will delve deeper into the Location, history, Interesting Facts, and Effects of the Aswan Dam.
The Aswan high dam is located in the picturesque city of Aswan and has been of significant importance throughout the history of Egypt. The damn boasts a towering height of 111m, towering length of 3,830 m, a base width of 980 m, a spillway capacity of 11,000 cubic meteres per second, Generates around 10,042 Gifawhatts annually and last but not least contains 43 million cubic metres of constructing material making it a technical and scientific masterpiece.
The first-ever recorded attempt to build a dam near the Aswan area was in the 11th century by the famous Arab polymath and engineer Ibn Al-Haytham.this was a result of being summoned by the Fatimid Caliph, Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah to figure out a solution for the Nile flooding. When testing out the idea practically it showed its inapplicability. Some of these temples are:
The second attempt to construct the Aswan Dam would be a British venture as they began construction of the first dam across the Nile in 1898 with construction extending to 1902. The project at the time was led by a sir Wiliam Wilcocks and was named the “Aswan Low Dam”.
The third attempt at constructing the Aswan High dam came in between 1954 to 1959 with plans for a New Aswan dam being suggested by a half greek, half Egyptian engineer called Adrian Daninios. Evidently, the government of Farouk showed no interest in the plans and went with Harold Edwin Hursts proposal instead. The aforementioned plan was comprised of storing the water in Sudan and Ethiopia due to the low evaporation rate in those areas. This venture, however, was short-lived as with the Officer movement led by Gamal Abdel Nasser Daninios plan was put into motion. Fearing the spread of Russian influence in the area both America and the United Kingdom offered to participate in the funding of the Dam. this lead to a loan of 270 million U.S.D in return for Nasser Spearheading the Arab-Israeli conflict due to him identifying as a neutralist and a natural leader. Following a power play by Nasser and requesting the Us to provide weapons that word conditioned to be used in defence only he was able to secure 56 and 14 million dollars from both Britain and the United kingdom after Russia offering to provide the weapons.
Following a Series of Political events and frictions between Egypt, the United States and the USSR (modern-day Russia) and concerns of the Abu Simbel temple being submerged the USSR continued to provide support for the Dam. Alongside the design and assistance provided by the Soviet Hydro project Institute alongside 25,000 Egyptian Engineers The construction of the Aswan high dam started in 1960. The Dam was finalized and the reservoir reached full capacity in 1976.
Now, what makes the Aswan Dam such an Important structure? well, there are a couple of good reasons for that and here are some of them:
In conclusion, Although providing several benefits the Aswan Dam it has not been without some negative effects such as the waterlogging, increases in the soil salinity, Decreases in fish catches in the area are some examples. However, they are not the majority as with all its flaws Life as we know it would not be unfathomable without it.