Aswan High Dam

We flew into Aswan very early this morning, yes, like waking up at 4:30 am, I thought we were on vacation??? We were given this barely edible box breakfast to take with us. I only took the banana and something that resembled a croissant. Here is what it looked like...

Here are pictures of our flight over Lake Nasser. Wow, seeing "a" body of water admist desert land. What an oasis!



Our first stop of the day was at the Aswan High Dam. The aim of the project was to regulate river flooding, to provide storage of water for agriculture, and to generate electricity. Before the dam was built, the Nile overflowed its banks once a year and deposited four million tons of nutrient-rich silt on the valley floor, making the dry land productive and fertile. But there were some years when the river did not rise at all, causing widespread drought and famine.

Unfortunately, the dam has negative side effects. In order to build the dam, 90,000 Egyptian peasants had to move. To make matters worse, the rich silt that normally fertilized the dry desert land during annual floods is now stuck at the bottom of Lake Nasser! Farmers now have to use million tons of artificial fertilizer to substitute for natural nutrients that once fertilized the arid floodplain.

Honestly, this stop didn’t make much of an impression on us. It may be a monumental engineering project but I was looking for more ancient endeavors. But recalling the story told by our knowledgeable guide did help to appreciate the Egyptian effort.