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Aswan High
Dam
construction in southern Egypt, that exploits the
water of the Nile.
The construction was started in 1960, and fully
finished 10 years later. The Aswan High Dam became
an expression of political tensions in those days
— financed by the help of the Soviet Union, few
years after the war inflicted upon Egypt by
Israel, France and Britain. Of the total cost of
US$1 billion, about 1/3 seems to have been a gift
from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union provided
400 technicians for the work. The lake that grew
gradually from the construction, is called Lake
Nasser, in honor of the president Gamal Abdel
Nasser, who died the year the dam was finished.
The embankment is 111 meters high, with a width of
near 1,000 meters. Lake Nasser is 480 lm long and
up to 16 km wide. The power station has a yearly
output capacity of 2,1 gig watts, but the full
capacity cannot be exploited due to a lower water
level in Lake Nasser than the full capacity.
Nearby, about 6 km north of the High Dam, lies the
older Aswan Dam, from 1902. This was modernized in
1960, and is also producing electricity.
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