Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "The great Nile dam, at the head of the first cataract of the Nile, is 600 miles above Cairo. The dam was built 1898-1902 by the Egyptian government for irrigation, the water being utilized for that purpose between may and July, when the river is at its lowest and before the annual inundation begins in the middle of July.

The dam is 1 1/4 miles across and is built of Assuan granite laid in Portland cement. On the dam are 180 sluices which have a capacity of emitting 15,000 tons of water per second. It holds 1,000,000,000 cubic meters of water. The dam is filled with muddy flood coming down from the mountains, and opens again when the Nile is low. As the water lies in the dam, the mud sinks; but as the outlets are long the bottom, when the water goes out it carries the mud with it, and this distributes it through the canals to farm after farm after farm. The dam has now a maximum height of 130 feet, and at the base is 100 feet thick and 30 feet at the top.

With the exception of the palm tree and the fringe of vegetation along the river, there is an absence of the abundant plant life of the regions having suffered sufficient rainfall."

Original Collection: Visual Instruction Department Lantern Slides

Item Number: P217:set 020 028

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