The Aswan High Dam - Egypt

Some brief statistics…
Official Name:    Aswan High Dam
Length        : 3830 m
Height        : 111 m
Width (at base):980 m base, 40 m crest
Maintained by    : Muaykensan

Reservoir information
Creates    : Lake Nasser
Capacity    : 111 km3

Power Generation Information
Turbines    : 12
Installed capacity: 2.1GW

Introduction
Designed and built by the USSR's, Zuk Hydroproject Institute, which is a state organization that designed the country's river-control schema, including 170 hydro-electric power stations, the Aswan Dam is Africa’s tallest dam standing at a massive 1542 feet from the river bottom to a 131 ft crest, which is 11,810 feet long. The dam holds back 1.99 trillion cubic yards of water, which creates the reservoir of 6 miles wide and 310 miles long.
 
Construction
The earliest attempt of building a dam in Aswan dates back to the 1000s, when the Iraqi polymath and engineer Ibn al-Haytham (known as Alhazen in the West) was summoned to Egypt by the Fatimid Caliph, Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, to regulate the flooding of the Nile, a task requiring an early attempt at an Aswan Dam.[1] After his field work made him aware of the impracticality of this scheme,[2] and fearing the caliph's anger, he feigned madness. He was kept under house arrest from 1011 until al-Hakim's death in 1021, during which time he wrote his influential Book of Optics.
The Aswan High Dam was constructed in 1954 when the actual planning begun. In 1958, the Soviet Union stepped in and funded the dam project. The Soviets also provided technicians and heavy machinery. The enormous rock and clay dam was designed by the Soviet Hydroproject Institute along with some Egyptian engineers. 25 thousands Egyptian engineers and workers formed the backbone of the workforce required to complete this tremendous project which deeply changed many aspects in Egypt.
Construction began in 1960. The High Dam, as-Sad al-'Aali, an embankment dam, was completed on 21 July 1970. It took 10 years to build with the first stage completed by 1964. The reservoir began filling in 1964 while the dam was still under construction and first reached capacity in 1976. In the late 1950's the reservoir raised concern with archaeologists because major historical sites were about to be under water. A rescue operation began in 1960 under UNESCO. Sites were to be surveyed and excavated and 24 major monuments were moved to safer locations or granted to countries that helped with the works (such as the Debod temple in Madrid and the Temple of Dendur in New York).On the Egyptian side, the project was led by Osman Ahmed Osman's Arab Contractors. The relatively young Osman underbid his only competitor by one-half.

Construction Statistics:
At maximum, 11,000 cubic metres of water can pass through the dam every second. There are further emergency spillways for an extra 5000 cubic metres per second and the Toshka Canal links the reservoir to the Toshka Depression. The reservoir, named Lake Nasser, is 550 km long and 35 km at it’s widest with a surface area of 5,250 square kilometres. It holds 111 cubic kilometres of water.
The dam rises 1542 feet from the river bottom to a 131 ft crest, which is 11,810 feet long.
The dam holds back 1.99 trillion cubic yards of water, which creates the reservoir of 6 miles wide and 310 miles long.
The largest cut-off in alluvial grouting soils and has the deepest cut-off of any dam, equal to 836 feet deep and seals an area of 600,000 square feet.
The largest cut-off in alluvial grouting soils and has the deepest cut-off of any dam, equal to 836 feet deep and seals an area of 600,000 square feet.
Vibration consolidation was used to compact the earth fill, creating the body of the dam.
28.6 Million Cubic Yards of Rock was used
20 Million Cubic Yards of Sand was used
4 Million Cubic Yards of Clay was used
55 Million Cubic Yards of Material was used.

Effects of the Dam
From an industrial and governmental perspective, both dams were successes in their original goals (to control flooding, prevent drought, and supply hydroelectric power). From an environmental and humanitarian perspective, these dams altered ecosystems and displaced native peoples that had lived in harmony for literally tens of thousands of years. As with any major project, there is more than one side to the story and humans continue to learn to predict the outcomes of their actions and the effects these new conditions create.