Overview
The dam is 3.8 kilometres long and 111 metres high, built with Soviet money and engineering after Western funding was withdrawn in 1956 — a withdrawal that triggered the Suez Crisis. It ended the floods that had renewed Egyptian fields for millennia, so farmers now depend on fertiliser, and the Delta is eroding without new sediment. Around 100,000 Nubians were resettled when the lake filled.
Highlights
The visitor terrace on the crest gives the scale, with the lake on one side and the tailrace on the other. The lotus-shaped Soviet-Egyptian Friendship Monument stands at the western end. It is usually visited together with Philae and the unfinished obelisk in a half-day circuit.