Aswan High Dam
The dam located in the mid-stream of the Nile River, in the northwestern part of the image, 690km away from Cairo was completed in 1971 with the financial and technological assistance of the Soviet Union. It is 111m high, 3,800m wide and is the world's biggest dam, having 180 watergates and 12 power-generating units supplying 2.1million kw of electric power. Chemical fertilizer and steel plants were built aiming at utilizing this supply, thus industrializing this area. Furthermore year round irrigation of the surrounding land has been done utilizing water of Lake Nasser generated by this dam, turning the vast desert area around the upper stream if the dam into cultivated land.
There are many important historic ruins in this region whose eras are diversified from the Old Stone Age to the Ptolemy Kingdom. In addition, it drew world-wide attention as the number of well-known ruins to be submerged as the result of dam construction was unprecedently large. Among them, Abu Simbel Shrine dedicated to Ramses II and Queen F.A.'s Shrine built around 1000 B.C. and some others received much attention by an unprecedented campaign to move them to spots 70m higher than the dam site with UNESCO funds and donations from all over the world.
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