One of the most beautiful things about the Nile is the Aswan High Dam in Lake Nasser. Although the dam didn’t have much impact on the environment, the view is gorgeous, especially from the top. Nasser wanted to solve the drought problem, and Egypt at that time was one of the driest countries in the world. This means that miles and miles of the desert can be cultivated.
Work began on January 9, 1960, and ended on July 21, 1970. It was officially opened on January 15, 1971. Also, due to the construction of a power station next to the massive engineering project, water flowed through the dam. Makes hydroelectric power. Egypt has met more than half of its electricity needs with clean energy that does not pollute the environment.
After the much older Pyramids of Giza, the Great Aswan Dam is one of the most famous structures in Egypt. Its construction made it possible to control the floods of the Nile by strengthening the barriers already in place.
How was the Aswan High Dam built?
The construction of the Grand Dam began in 1952, precisely after the Nasser Revolution. It was built because the flood of 1946 made the water level higher than the height of the old dam. As the problem continued, it was decided to build a better dam instead of raising the dam height already there a third time.
The Aswan High Dam has been there for 45 years, and it was built 45 years ago. The first dam was built to stop the floods of the Nile south of the city of Aswan, located on the eastern bank of the river. It was completed in 1902 and raised twice, from 1907 to 1912 and again from 1929 to 1933, but it was not enough.
The new dam is 3,600 meters long, 980 meters wide at the bottom, and 40 meters high. It can hold 43 million cubic meters of water. If the locks are fully opened, up to 11,000 cubic meters of water can flow per second.
Lake Nasser was created by the dam’s reservoir, which has an area of about 6,000 square kilometres, a length of 480 kilometres, and a width of up to 16 kilometres. It has a volume of between 150 and 165 cubic kilometres.
When the dam was built, more than 90 thousand people had to leave their homes not to flood the created lake. Although it was a sad and frightening period in the history of Nubia, the area around the current dam helped lessen the effects of the dangerous floods.
Why is the Aswan High Dam so important:
The dam contains 12 power generators, every 175 megawatts, producing more than 2 gigawatts of power. It also provides more than half of the electricity that Egypt needs, and in the 1970s, it gave nearly everyone in Egypt the first electrical connection.
