Aswan is famous for its two dams which dam the Nile. The Nile had flooded for thousands of years. Those floods landed millions of tons of sediment and nutrients on the land making it very fertile as well as soaking the ground with water for crops. The same floods also killed many people. Egypt needed more water for irrigation for food and also needed more electrical power.

The first dam was built by the British during their tenure in Egypt. It was built between 1898 and 1902. It was made almost entirely of local Aswan granite rock. The dam was subsequently raised twice in later years (1912 and 1933) to maintain and supply even more water and power. It’s quite a nice dam and it was the largest in the world when it was built. You can see the “Old Dam” as it’s called in the first photo. It’s actually quite nice to drive over and has nice landscaping.

The second dam or “High Dam” as it’s called was built between 1960 and 1971. It’s only four miles up river from the Old Dam. You can see each of them from the other one. The High Dam used 18 times as much material as was used in the Great Pyramid. The High Dam is about 2.3 miles long, about .6 of a mile wide at the base, and about 122 yards high. They say that 451 people died while constructing the High Dam. Lake Nasser forms behind the High Dam and it’s the biggest reservoir in the world. You can see Lake Nasser in the second photo.

The road goes over the High Dam as well, but it’s not really much to see. Also, armed guards will only let people stand in certain places. We really couldn’t get to any place to take a nice picture of the dam itself. The whole area was also very bland with not much vegetation and it was extremely hot. The third photo is looking at the Nile as it flows out of the High Dam.