The High Dam of Aswan | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 3 (Part 25) 02D19

Aswan High Dam – The World's Largest Embankment Dam | Aswan

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

After reaching the Aswan High Dam, we got off our bus to experience this manmade miracle, an impressive two-mile engineering feat of the 1960s.

The Aswan High Dam was built during the reign of Gamal Abdel Nasser, with Soviet help (400 Soviet experts and engineers worked on the dam). At a cost of 1 Billion dollars, construction started in 1960 and ended in 1970.

The Dam is 3,850 meters (12,565 feet) long, 1,000 meters (3,281 feet) wide and 111 meters (364 feet) high. The volume of the dam's body is 43 million cubic meters of cement, iron and other materials, and a water flow of up to 11,000 cubic meters of water can pass through the dam.

The Aswan High Dam has Lake Nasser, which is the largest artificial lake in the world, on the south side and the Nile River on the Northside. The idea is to stop the Nile from flooding and reserve the water in the lake during a flood and use the water during a drought.

The Aswan High Dam virtually eliminated the danger of floods and can hold 132 cubic kilometres (31.7 cubic miles) of water in Lake Nasser, generating 2.1 gigawatts of hydropower at the dam wall.

We had limited time to view the Dam. It had picturesque views on both sides, with the sun reflecting on the waters. I spent time taking pictures and videos.

I saw Egyptian Army troops guarding the Dam with heavy weapons. There were also police working with them.

We would be heading to the Philae Temple from here, which is located on an island.