What is the Aswan Low Dam?
Q: What is the Aswan Low Dam?
A: The Aswan Low Dam is a masonry dam across the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt. It was built by the British between 1899 and 1902 and was the largest masonry dam in the world at that time.
Q: What purpose did it serve?
A: The primary purpose of the Aswan Low Dam was to provide storage of annual floodwater for irrigation purposes. It also provided electricity through hydroelectricity technology.
Q: Who built it?
A: The Aswan Low Dam was built by the British between 1899 and 1902.
Q: Where is it located?
A: The dam is located across the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt, about 1000 km up-river and 690 km south-southeast of Cairo.
Q: What type of dam is it?
A: The Aswan Low Dam is a buttress dam, which means that it held in place just by gravity without any additional support structures or reinforcements.
Q: Why did they build a new dam upstream later on? A: Due to inadequate storage capacity for planned development, they eventually had to build another larger dam (the Aswan High Dam) upstream in order to maximize pool elevation and meet irrigation demands.
Q: How does it generate electricity today? A:The water from the river drives a water turbine and generator which produces electricity even today.
