2. Aswan Dam, Egypt
Photo credit: Mbarron
The Aswan Dam or Aswan High Dam is an embankment dam built across the Nile. Constructed between 1960 and 1970, it has an estimated cost of $1.2 billion by Russian engineers alongside their Egyptian counterparts. The Aswan Dam is 3,830 meters long, 980 meters wide at the base, 40 meters wide at the crest, and 111 meters tall. Its reservoir can hold 132 cubic km of water.
The multipurpose dam serves to generate electricity, control floods, and irrigate thousands of hectares of farmland. Following the 1952 Egyptian revolution, a government developmental blueprint considered a dam pivotal to the country’s industrialization ambitions.
