The Aswan Dam is an Embankment Dam built across the Nile at Aswan, Egypt. The British began construction of the first dam across the Nile in 1898. Construction lasted until 1902, and the dam was opened on 10 December 1902. The project was designed by Sir William Willcocks and involved several eminent engineers, including Sir Benjamin Baker and Sir John Arid whose firm, John Arid and Co. was the main contractor.
The foundation of the Dam was constructed in 1898. It was completed in 1902, and the reservoir was filled for the first time in the season (1902-1903) at a capacity of one billion m3. It was heightended twice to store more water to meet expansion in cultivated areas. The first heightening took place in 1908-1912 to store 2.5 billion m3, and the second heighten in (1929-1933) to store 5.0 billion m3: Figure 1a,b,c,d,show general view of the dam and the regulating looks. The dam is a gravity dam of the sluice type built in granite masonry. The batter on the upstream face is 1:18 and on the downstream face is 1:15. It was designed to hold up water at upstream level of 106m and the downstream level is 85 in i.e. maximum head is 20 m. The dam naturally is divided into two lengths. The first is about 1400 m long which is pierced by sluices and the other is about 550 m which is solid. In the pierced part, there are 180 sluices. Owing to the uneven contour of the river bed at the cross-section of the cataract where the dam was built, the sluices were divided into series at different levels. 140 of them called lower sluices, of 7 m high by 2 m width, and were designed to be capable of the largest possible flood with a relatively small head of water. The remaining 40 called the upper sluices are 3.5 m high by 2.0 m width and were built for the purpose of discharging under low heads of the normal flow when the reservoir is full.
With only two exceptions, the sluices were divided into groups of ten each. Between individual sluices in each group there was a length of in of masonry; and between each group of sluices the length of masonry was increased to 10 in. at which there is a buttress of 1.15 in thick.