The New Student's Reference Work/Assuan Dam, The

Assuan Dam (äs-swän) , The. A part of an extensive system of irrigation undertaken by the British government in Egvpt. Assuan is about six hundred miles up the Nile and is below the first cataract. By building dams across the Nile at Assuan and Assiut, it is proposed to form two great reservoirs in which to store the water during the annual overflow of the river. By this means a much greater area can be irrigated and brought under cultivation, and the productiveness of Egypt greatly increased. The dam at Assuan is a mile and a quarter long. It consists of a solid wall of granite rising ninety feet above the level of low Nile, and is about sixty feet in width at the top. The plans include a roadway across the top, so that there may be communication between the two sides of the river. There are one hundred and eighty sluices in the dam, each equipped with heavy steel doors which are readily opened and closed by means of levers. It is expected that this dam will form a lake one hundred and forty miles long. The stored up water partially submerges the island of Philæ with its interesting ruins.