Egypt's Aswan High Dam: A Costly Legacy

Aswan High Dam is one of the most important projects built in Egypt. It is sometimes nicknamed "the Miracle of the Twentieth Century." However, it has also been criticized for its human, environmental, and geopolitical costs.

Many people from Aswan worked on the dam, and many died as a result. Despite its critics, the High Dam has had a major impact on Egypt, providing a boost to irrigation and agriculture and helping to distribute electricity throughout the country.

Aswan High Dam - image credits: Around Egypt Tours

Historical overview

The late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was the mastermind behind the construction of the Egypt's Aswan High Dam. The dam was built to control the flooding of the Nile River and to ensure Egypt's agricultural and electrical self-sufficiency.

Egypt's Aswan High Dam - image credits: Local Guides Connect (Ahmed Zakaria)

The High Dam is located 700 kilometers south of Cairo and is subject to a strict surveillance system using cameras. For a few hours each day, it welcomes visitors who are fascinated by the 111-meter-high and 3,600-meter-long structure. Its construction was a national epic.

The importance of the Aswan High Dam

The Nile River is of great importance to Egypt. 97% of Egypt's population of over 100 million people live in only 8% of its land area, which is estimated to be 1,002,000 km².

Before the building of the Aswan Dam, Nile water was stored annually, which was very dangerous. There are years when the water revenue is high, reaching 151 billion cubic meters, and there are other years when it is low, dropping to 42 billion cubic meters.

Therefore, the importance of building the aswan dam lies in storing water in high-revenue years and using it in low-revenue years. Thus, the High Dam was the first continuous storage project at the level of the Nile Basin countries.

The dam also protects Egypt from high floods that used to overflow the country and drown large areas of it, and preserves water that is wasted in the Mediterranean Sea, in addition to generating electricity. The power plant produces an annual electricity output of up to 10 billion kilowatt hours.

The cost of the project

Building the Aswan Dam

The Egyptian engineer of Greek origin, Adrian Daninos, presented the leadership of the 1952 Revolution with a project to build a huge dam at Aswan to contain the Nile flood, store its water, and generate electricity from it.

Gamal Abdel Nasser observing Aswan Dam construction

Egypt initially asked the World Bank to finance the project, and it actually agreed, but later backed down due to pressure from Britain, France, and the United States.

Finally, an agreement was signed between Egypt and the Soviet Union (now Russia) to lend Egypt the money needed to build the High Dam.

Lake Nasser

Lake Nasser began to form during the construction of the Aswan High Dam between 1958 and 1970. It is one of the largest artificial lakes in the world, with a capacity to store more than 165 billion cubic meters of water.

Lake Nasser - image credits: Local Guides Connect (Ahmed Zakaria)

This has caused a large proportion of the silt to be trapped behind the dam, depleting soil fertility downstream of the Nile, which has affected the land. It also caused the Nubians to be displaced.

Nubian Displacement

While the Egypt's Aswan High Dam brought many benefits, it also caused a lot of damage. The construction of the High Dam led to a rise in the water level, which caused the flooding of the lands of the Nubian in Egypt.

This flooding threatened to submerge archaeological landmarks such as the Temple of Abu Simbel, which was built nearly 3,300 years ago, and the Temple of Philae. However, thanks to an international campaign led by UNESCO in 1960, these landmarks were saved from drowning.

Nubian Displacement - image credits: Raseef22

The Egyptian government relocated the inhabitants of Old Nubia to a new location north of Aswan. It established a new administrative center called Nasr Nubia Center and named the villages in this new center after the villages that were submerged under Lake Nasser.

Many Nubians expressed their displeasure with this move, as Nubian society is a Nile-based society. Despite this, they were relocated to desert lands with no crops or water. To this day, financial compensation is being paid to the Nubian community for the damages caused by the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam

Over the past ten years, Cairo, Khartoum, and Addis Ababa have been engaged in a major controversy over the Renaissance Dam that Ethiopia has been building on the Blue Nile since 2011.

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - image credits: Webuild Group

The dam is expected to become the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa, and Ethiopia considers it essential for its development.

However, on the other hand, Egypt fears that the dam will affect its share of the Nile River, which it relies on to secure 97% of its water needs for irrigation and drinking.

It also fears that the dam could cause many disasters if it is destroyed, such as flooding Sudan. Despite these concerns, Egypt has managed the file well and is making good progress.

The symbol of Egyptian-Soviet friendship

When you visit the Egypt's Aswan High Dam, don't miss the opportunity to see the Egyptian-Soviet Friendship Symbol, which stands nearby.

The symbol of Egyptian-Soviet friendship - image credits: Local Guides Connect (Ahmed Zakaria)

This symbol is an expression of the strong relations between Egypt and Russia, which was represented by the Soviet Union's support for the High Dam project by providing a loan of $1 billion and sending a team of experts, engineers, and technicians to help build it.

The symbol was inaugurated in 1967 by Russian architect Yuri Umlitro Shinko. It is an open lotus flower consisting of five petals and was executed by the Egyptian Reinforced Concrete Company.

Ticket prices for visiting the Aswan High Dam

There are two areas to buy tickets for the Aswan High Dam:

1. The collection point:

Note: Visitors who bypass the collection point and go directly to the viewing point will have to pay a 20% fine.

Visiting times for the Egypt's Aswan High Dam

How to get to the Aswan High Dam?

To go to the Aswan High Dam, you have several options:

1. inDriver app

inDriver is a popular transportation app in Aswan. The app will take you to the Aswan High Dam easily and comfortably. This method will be relatively expensive.

2. Local transportation

follow these steps:

1. Find a microbus heading to the "El Seil" area. You can find these microbuses on the Corniche or at any known point in Aswan.
2. Board the microbus and continue the journey until you reach the end of the road.
3. Get off the microbus and look for other microbuses that go directly to the Aswan High Dam.
4. If you don't find any direct microbuses, ask someone around for directions to the High Dam.
5. Get on one of the microbuses going to the Aswan High Dam and ask the driver to stop at the mosque near the High Dam.
6. From the mosque, you can take a "tuk-tuk" to reach your final destination at the High Dam.

3. Train

follow these steps:

1. Go to Aswan Railway Station.
2. On your left, you will find several ticket windows.
3. Enter any of these windows and tell the clerk that you want a ticket to the Aswan High Dam.
4. The ticket price ranges from 5 to 15 Egyptian pounds.

These are the departure times for trains heading to the Egypt's Aswan High Dam area:

• 5:40 AM
• 7:15 AM
• 11:00 AM
• 1:30 PM
• 2:15 PM
• 5:15 PM

These are the departure times for trains returning to Aswan Railway Station in the city center:

• 6:30 AM
• 8:00 AM
• 4:30 PM
• 5:30 PM
• 6:00 PM
• 10:40 PM