Aswan High Dam
The Aswan High Dam as seen from space
Location of the Aswan Dam in Egypt
Official name	Aswan High Dam
Location	Egypt
Coordinates	23°58′14″N 32°52′40″E / 23.97056°N 32.87778°E / 23.97056; 32.87778Coordinates: 23°58′14″N 32°52′40″E / 23.97056°N 32.87778°E / 23.97056; 32.87778
Construction began	1960
Opening date	1970
Dam and spillways
Height	111 metres (364 ft)
Length	3,830 metres (12,570 ft)
Base width	980 metres (3,220 ft)
Impounds	River Nile
Spillway capacity	11,000 cubic metres per second (390,000 cu ft/s)
Reservoir
Creates	Lake Nasser
Capacity	132 cubic kilometres (107,000,000 acre·ft)
Surface area	5,250 square kilometres (2,030 sq mi)
Normal elevation	183 metres (600 ft)
Max. water depth	180 metres (590 ft)
Reservoir length	550 kilometres (340 mi)
Max. reservoir width	35 kilometres (22 mi)
Power station
Commission date	1967–1971
Turbines	12× 175 MW Francis-type
Installed capacity	2,100 MW

The Aswan Dam is an embankment dam situated across the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt. Since the 1950s, the name commonly refers to the High Dam. Construction of the High Dam became a key objective of the Egyptian Government following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, as the ability to control floods, provide water for irrigation, and generate hydroelectricity were seen as pivotal to Egypt's industrialisation. The High Dam was constructed between 1960 and 1970, and has had a significant impact on the economy and culture of Egypt.

Before the dams were built, the Nile River flooded every year during late summer, when water flowed down the valley from its East African drainage basin. These floods brought high water and natural nutrients and minerals that annually enriched the fertile soil along the floodplain and delta; this had made the Nile valley ideal for farming since ancient times. Because floods vary, in high-water years the whole crop might be wiped out, while in low-water years widespread drought and famine occasionally occurred. As Egypt's population grew and conditions changed, both a desire and ability developed to control the floods, and thus both protect and support farmland and the economically important cotton crop. With the reservoir storage provided by the Aswan dams, the floods could be lessened and the water stored for later release.

Construction history[link]

The earliest recorded attempt to build a dam near Aswan was in the 11th century, when the Arab 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] His field work convinced him of the impracticality of this scheme,^[2]

Aswan Low Dam[link]

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 Aird, whose firm, John Aird & Co., was the main contractor.^[3][4]

Aswan High Dam[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2012)

Aswan High Dam is an embankment dam.

After the Low Dam was almost over-topped in 1946, the British administration decided that rather than raise the dam a third time, a second dam should be built some 7 km upriver. The post-war years saw major changes in Egypt, including the growth of nationalism, the abrogation of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, and the overthrow of the monarchy, led by the Free Officers Movement, including its ultimate leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, as well as Anwar Sadat.

Planning for the "High Dam" proper began in 1954, following the revolution, and changed development priorities. Initially, both the US and USSR were interested in the development of the dam, but this occurred in the increasingly tense readings of Cold War happenings, as well as growing intra-Arab rivalries.

In 1955 Nasser was trying to portray himself as the leader of Arab nationalism, in opposition to the traditional monarchies, especially Hashemite Iraq following its signing of the 1955 Baghdad Pact. At that time the US feared that communism would spread to the Middle East and saw Nasser as a natural leader of an anti-communist Arab league. The US and Britain offered to help finance construction of the high dam, with a loan of US$270 million, in return for Nasser's leadership in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. While opposed both to communism and imperialism, Nasser presented himself as a tactical neutralist, and sought to work with both the US and USSR for Egyptian and Arab benefit.^[5]

After a particularly criticized raid by Israel against Egyptian forces in Gaza in 1955, Nasser realized that he could not legitimately portray himself as the leader of pan-Arab nationalism if he could not defend his country militarily against Israel. In addition to his development plans, he looked to quickly modernize his military, and turned first to the US.

US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and US President Dwight Eisenhower told Nasser that the US would supply him with weapons only if they were used for defensive purposes and accompanied by US military personnel for supervision and training. Nasser did not accept these conditions and then looked to the Soviet Union for support. Although Dulles believed that Nasser was only bluffing and that the USSR would not aid Nasser, he was wrong; the USSR promised Nasser a quantity of arms in exchange for a deferred payment of Egyptian grain and cotton. On 27 September 1955, Nasser announced an arms deal, with Czechoslovakia acting as a middleman for the Soviet support.^[6] Instead of retaliating against Nasser for turning to the Soviets, Dulles sought to improve relations with him. This explains the later offer of December 1955, in which the US and UK pledged $56 and $14 million respectively towards the construction of the dam.^[7]

Though the "Czech arms deal" actually increased US willingness to invest in Aswan, the British cited the deal as a reason for withdrawing their funding. What angered Dulles much more was Nasser’s recognition of communist China, which was in direct conflict with Dulles's policy of containment.^[8] There are several other reasons why the US decided to withdraw the offer of funding. Dulles believed that the Soviet Union would not fulfill its commitment to help the Egyptians. He was also irritated by Nasser’s neutrality and attempts to play both sides of the Cold War. At the time, other western allies in the Middle East, including Turkey and Iraq, were irritated that Egypt, a persistently neutral country, was being offered so much aid.^[9]

In June 1956 the Soviets offered Nasser $1,120,000,000 at 2% interest for the construction of the dam. On 19 July the US State Department announced that American financial assistance for the High Dam was "not feasible in present circumstances."^[7]

On 26 July 1956, with wide Egyptian acclaim, Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal as well as fair compensation for the former owners. Nasser planned on the revenues generated by the canal helping to fund construction of the High Dam. When the Suez War broke out, the United Kingdom, France, and Israel were mainly successful in attaining their immediate military objectives, but pressure from the US and the USSR at the United Nations and elsewhere forced them to withdraw.

In 1958 the Soviet Union provided funding for the dam project.

A view from the vantage point in the middle of High Dam towards the monument of Arab-Soviet Friendship (Lotus Flower) by architects Piotr Pavlov, Juri Omeltchenko and sculptor Nikolay Vechkanov

In the 1950s archaeologists began raising concerns that several major historical sites were about to be under water. A rescue operation began in 1960 under UNESCO. The Great Temple of Abu Simbel, was preserved by moving 22 monuments and architectural complexes to the shores of Lake Nasser under the UNESCO Nubia Campaign.^[10] Also moved were Philae, Kalabsha and Amada.^[11] Other monuments were granted to countries that helped with the works (such as the Debod temple in Madrid, the Temple of Taffeh in Leiden and the Temple of Dendur in New York). The remaining archeological sites have been flooded by Lake Nasser, among others the Buhen fort. A number of historical monuments were located in the area that was flooded by Lake Nasser.

Construction and filling 1960–1976[link]

A central pilon of the monument of the Arab-Soviet Friendship, commemorating the completion of Aswan High Dam. The coat of arms of the Soviet Union is on the left and the coat of arms of Egypt is on the right, by sculptor Nikolay Vechkanov.

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. Twenty-five thousand Egyptian engineers and workers formed the backbone of the workforce required to complete this tremendous project which deeply changed many aspects in Egypt.

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.^[12]

1960: Start of construction on 9 January^[13]

1964: First dam construction stage completed, reservoir started filling

1970: The High Dam, as-Sad al-'Aali, completed on 21 July

1976: Reservoir reached capacity

2011: plans to build extension to dam

Specifications[link]

The Aswan High Dam is 3,830 metres long, 980 metres wide at the base, 40 metres wide at the crest and 111 metres tall. It contains 43 million cubic metres of material. At maximum, 11,000 cubic metres per second of water can pass through the dam. There are further emergency spillways for an extra 5,000 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 its widest with a surface area of 5,250 square kilometres. It holds 132 cubic kilometres of water.

A panorama of Aswan Dam

Irrigation scheme[link]

Green irrigated land along the Nile amidst the desert

Water balances

Main irrigation systems (schematically)

Due to the absence of appreciable rainfall, Egypt's agriculture depends entirely on irrigation. With irrigation, two crops per year can be produced, except for sugar cane which has a growing period of almost one year.

The high dam at Aswan releases, on average, 55 km³ water per year of which some 46 km³ are diverted into the irrigation canals.

In the Nile valley and delta, almost 33,600 square kilometres benefit from these waters producing on average 1.8 crops per year. The annual crop consumptive use of water is about 38 cubic kilometres. Hence, the overall irrigation efficiency is 38/46 = 0.82 or 82%. This is a relatively high irrigation efficiency. The field irrigation efficiencies are much less, but the losses are re-used downstream. This continuous re-use accounts for the high overall efficiency.

The following table shows that the equal distribution of irrigation water over the branch canals taking off from the main irrigation canals leaves much to be desired:^[14]

*) Period 1 March to 31 July. 1 feddan is about 1 acre or 0.42 ha.

*) Data from the Egyptian Water Use Management Project (EWUP)^[15]

Salt balance
The salt concentration of the water in the Aswan reservoir is about 0.25 kg/m³, a very low salinity level. At an annual inflow of 55 km³, the annual salt import reaches 14 million tons. The average salt concentration of the drainage water evacuated into the sea and the coastal lakes is 2.7 kg/m³.^[16] At an annual discharge of 10 km³ (not counting the 2 km³ of salt intrusion from the sea and the lakes, see figure "Water balances"), the annual salt export reaches 27 million ton. In 1995, the salt export was higher than the import, and Egypt's agricultural lands were desalinizing. Part of this could be due to the large number of subsurface drainage projects executed in the last decades to control the water table and soil salinity.^[17]

Drainage
Drainage through sub-surface drains and drainage channels is essential to prevent a deterioration of crop yields from waterlogging and soil salinization caused by irrigation. By 2003 more than 20000 square kilometres have been equipped with a subsurface drainage system and approximately 7.2 km³ of water is drained annually from areas with these systems. The total investment cost in agricultural drainage over 27 years from 1973 to 2002 was about 3.1 billion US$ covering the cost of design, construction, maintenance, research and training. During this period 11 large scale projects were implemented with financial support from World Bank and other donors^[18]

Impacts[link]

The High Dam has resulted in protection from floods and droughts, an increase in agricultural production and employment, electricity production and improved navigation that benefits tourism. Conversely, the dam flooded a large area, causing the relocation of over 100,000 people and submerged archaeological sites, some of which were relocated as well. The dam is also blamed for coastline erosion, soil salinity and health problems.

The assessment of the costs and benefits of the dam remains a controversial issue, however, decades after its completion. According to one estimate, the annual economic benefits of the High Dam right after its completion were Egyptian Pound (EP) 255 million (US$587m using the 1970 exchange rate of 2.3 US$ per EP): EP140 million from agricultural production, EP100 million from hydroelectric generation, EP10 million from flood protection, and EP5 million from improved navigation. At the time of its construction, total cost, including unspecified "subsidiary projects" and the extension of electric power lines, amounted to Egyptian EP450 million. Not taking into account the negative environmental and social impacts of the dam, its costs are thus estimated to have been recovered within only two years.^[19] One observer notes: "The impacts of the Aswan High Dam (...) have been overwhelmingly positive. Although the Dam has contributed to some environmental problems, these have proved to be significantly less severe than was generally expected, or currently believed by many people."^[20] Another observer disagrees and recommended that the dam should be torn down. Tearing it down would cost only a fraction of the funds required for "continually combating the dam's consequential damage" and 500,000 hectares of fertile land could be reclaimed from the layers of mud on the bed of the drained reservoir.^[21]

Periodic floods and droughts have affected Egypt since ancient times. The dam mitigated the effects of floods, such as in 1964, 1973 and 1988. Navigation along the river has been improved, both upstream and downstream of the dam. Sailing along the Nile is a favorite tourism activity, which is mainly done during winter when the natural flow of the Nile would have been too low to allow navigation of cruise ships. A new fishing industry has been created around Lake Nasser, though it is struggling due to its distance from any significant markets. The annual production was about 35 000 tons in the mid-90s. Factories for the fishing industry and packaging have been set up near the Lake.^[11]

Drought protection, agricultural production and employment[link]

The dams also protected Egypt from the droughts in 1972–1973 and 1983–1987 that devastated East and West Africa. The High Dam allowed Egypt to reclaim about 2 million feddan (840,000 hectares) in the Delta and along the Nile Valley, increasing the country's irrigated area by a third. The increase was brought about both by irrigating what used to be desert and by bringing under cultivation of 385,000 ha that were previously used as flood retention basins.^[22] About half a million families were settled on these new lands. In particular the area under rice and sugar cane cultivation increased. In addition, about 1 million feddan (420,000 hectares), mostly in Upper Egypt, were converted from flood irrigation with only one crop per year to perennial irrigation allowing two or more crops per year. On other previously irrigated land, yields increased because water could be made available at critical low-flow periods. For example, wheat yields in Egypt tripled between 1952 and 1991 and better availability of water contributed to this increase. Most of the 32 km³ of freshwater, or almost 40 percent of the average flow of the Nile that were previously lost to the sea every year could be put to beneficial use. While about 10 km³ of the water saved is lost due to evaporation in Lake Nasser, the amount of water available for irrigation still increased by 22 km³.^[11]

Electricity production[link]

The dam powers twelve generators each rated at 175 megawatts, with a total of 2.1 gigawatts. Power generation began in 1967. When the dam first reached peak output it produced around half of Egypt's entire electricity production (about 15 percent by 1998) and allowed most Egyptian villages to use electricity for the first time. The High Dam has also improved the efficiency and the extension of the Old Aswan Hydropower stations by regulating upstream flows.^[11]

Resettlement[link]

Lake Nasser behind the Aswan dam, Egypt, 5250 km², displaced more than 100,000 people.

Lake Nasser flooded much of lower Nubia and 100,000 to 120,000 people were resettled in Sudan and Egypt.^[23]

In Sudan 50,000 to 70,000 Sudanese Nubians were moved approximately 700 kilometers south to the semi-arid Butana plain near the town of Khashm el-Girba several hundred kilometers up the Atbara River. The climate there had a regular rainy season as opposed to their previous desert habitat in which virtually no rain fell. Unlike in Egypt, the host population included no Nubians. The government developed an irrigation project, called the New Halfa Agricultural Development Scheme to grow cotton, grains, sugar cane and other crops. The Nubians were resettled in twenty five planned villages that included schools, medical facilities and other services including piped water and some electrification. The majority of the 50,000 Nubians resettled in Egypt were moved three to ten kilometers from the Nile near Kom Ombo, 45 kilometers downstream from Aswan in what was called “New Nubia”. Housing and facilities were built for 47 village units whose relationship to each other approximated that in Old Nubia. Irrigated land was provided to grow mainly sugar cane.^[24][25]

Loss of sediments[link]

Before the construction of the High Dam the Nile deposited sediments of various particle size – consisting of fine sand, silt and clay – on fields in Upper Egypt through its annual flood, contributing to soil fertility. However, the nutrient value of the sediment has often been overestimated. 88 percent of the sediment was carried to the sea before the construction of the High Dam. The nutrient value added to the land by the sediment was only 6,000 tons of potash, 7,000 tons of phosphorus pentoxide and 17,000 tons of nitrogen. These amounts are insignificant compared to what is needed to reach the yields achieved today in Egypt's irrigation.^[26] Also, the annual spread of sediment due to the Nile floods occurred along the banks of the Nile. Areas far from the river which never received the Nile floods before are now being irrigated.^[27]

The trapping of sediment by the dam has also increased coastline erosion surrounding the Nile Delta. The coastline erodes an estimated 125–175 m (410–574 ft) per year.^[28]

Waterlogging and increase in soil salinity[link]

Before the construction of the High Dam, groundwater levels in the Nile Valley fluctuated 8–9 m per year with the water level of the Nile. During summer when evaporation was highest, the groundwater level was too deep to allow salts dissolved in the water to be pulled to the surface through capillary action. With the disappearance of the annual flood and heavy year-round irrigation, groundwater levels remained high with little fluctuation leading to waterlogging. Soil salinity also increased because the distance between the surface and the groundwater table was small enough (1–2 m depending on soil conditions and temperature) to allow water to be pulled up by evaporation so that the relatively small concentrations of salt in the groundwater accumulated on the soil surface over the years. Since most of the farmland did not have proper subsurface drainage to lower the groundwater table, salinization gradually affected crop yields.^[22] Drainage through sub-surface drains and drainage channels is essential to prevent a deterioration of crop yields from soil salinization and waterlogging. By 2003 more than 2 million ha have been equipped with a subsurface drainage system at a cost from 1973 to 2002 of about US$ 3.1 billion^[29]

Health[link]

The standing water in irrigation canals is a breeding ground for snails carrying the parasite bilharzia.^[30] The incidence of bilharzia increased due to the Aswan High Dam inhibiting the natural fluctuations in water height. Important factors contributing to the prevalence of schistosomiasis were poor sanitation and limited awareness of how the disease was transmitted. Provision of clean water, sanitation, health education and rural clinics has reduced the overall prevalence of schistosomiasis from more than 40 percent during the pre-dam period to 10 per cent in 1995 and only 2 percent in 2002.^[20][27]

Other impacts[link]

Sediment deposited in the reservoir is lowering the water storage capacity of Lake Nasser. The reservoir storage capacity is 162 km³, including 31 km³ dead storage at the bottom of the lake below 147 m above sea level, 90 km³ live storage, and 41 km³ of storage for high flood waters above 175m above sea level. The annual sediment load of the Nile is about 134 million tons. This means that the dead storage volume would be filled up after 300–500 years if the sediment accumulated at the same rate throughout the area of the lake. Obviously sediment accumulates much faster at the upper reaches of the lake, where sedimentation has already affected the live storage zone.^[26]

Before the construction of the High Dam, the 50,000 km of irrigation and drainage canals in Egypt had to be dredged regularly to remove sediments. After construction of the dam, aquatic weeds grew much faster in the clearer water, helped by fertilizer residues. The total length of the infested waterways was about 27,000 km in the mid-90s. Weeds have been gradually brought under control by manual, mechanical and biological methods.^[11]

Mediterranean fishing and brackish water lake fishery declined after the dam was finished because nutrients that used to flow down the Nile to the Mediterranean were trapped behind the dam. For example, the Sardine catch off the Egyptian coast declined from 18,000 tons in 1962 to a mere 460 tons in 1968, but then gradually recovered to 8,590 tons in 1992. A scientific article in the mid-1990s noted that "the mismatch between low primary productivity and relatively high levels of fish production in the region still presents a puzzle to scientist."^[31]

A concern before the construction of the High Dam had been the potential drop in river-bed level downstream of the Dam as the result of erosion caused by the flow of sediment-free water. Estimates by various national and international experts put this drop at between 2 and 10 metres. However, the actual drop has been measured at 0.3-0.7 m, much less than anticipated.^[11]

The red-brick construction industry, which consisted of hundreds of factories that used Nile sediment deposits along the river, has also been negatively affected. Deprived of sediment, they started using the older alluvium of otherwise arable land taking out of production up to 120 square kilometers annually, with an estimated 1,000 square kilometers destroyed by 1984 when the government prohibited, “with only modest success,” further excavation.^[32] According to one source, bricks are now being made from new techniques which use a sand-clay mixture and it has been argued that the mud-based brick industry would have suffered even if the dam had not been built.^[27]

Because of the lower turbidity of the water sunlight penetrates deeper in the Nile water. Because of this and the increased presence of nutrients from fertilizers in the water, more algae grow in the Nile. This in turn increases the costs of drinking water treatment. Apparently few experts had anticipated that water quality in the Nile would actually decrease because of the High Dam.^[22]

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: an account of early plans to construct the Aswan Dam

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aswan High Dam

• View the official opening of the Aswan Dam in 1971

Aswan أسوان
Aswan Location in Egypt
Coordinates: 24°05′20″N 32°53′59″E / 24.08889°N 32.89972°E / 24.08889; 32.89972
Country	Egypt
Governorate	Aswan
Government
• Governor
Population (2008 (estimate))
• Total	275,000
Time zone	EST (UTC+2)

Aswan ( /ˌæsˈwɑːn /; Arabic: [ʔɑˈsˁwɑːn], Arabic: أسوان‎ Aswān, Ancient Egyptian: Swenet, Coptic: ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ Swān, Ancient Greek: Συήνη Syene), formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate.

Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dams on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city has expanded and includes the formerly separate community on the island of Elephantine.

History[link]

swn.t in hieroglyphs

Aswan is the ancient city of Swenet, which in antiquity was the frontier town of Ancient Egypt facing the south. Swenet is supposed to have derived its name from an Egyptian goddess with the same name^{[citation needed]}. This goddess later was identified as Eileithyia by the Greeks and Lucina by the Romans during their occupation of Ancient Egypt because of the similar association of their goddesses with childbirth, and of which the import is "the opener". The ancient name of the city also is said to be derived from the Egyptian symbol for trade.^[1]

Because the Ancient Egyptians oriented toward the origin of the life-giving waters of the Nile in the south, Swenet was the first town in the country, and Egypt always was conceived to "open" or begin at Swenet.^{[citation needed]} The city stood upon a peninsula on the right (east) bank of the Nile, immediately below (and north of) the first cataract of the flowing waters, which extend to it from Philae. Navigation to the delta was possible from this location without encountering a barrier.

The stone quarries of ancient Egypt located here were celebrated for their stone, and especially for the granitic rock called Syenite. They furnished the colossal statues, obelisks, and monolithal shrines that are found throughout Egypt, including the pyramids; and the traces of the quarrymen who wrought in these 3,000 years ago are still visible in the native rock. They lie on either bank of the Nile, and a road, four miles (6 km) in length, was cut beside them from Syene to Philae.

Swenet was equally important as a military station as that of a place of traffic. Under every dynasty it was a garrison town; and here tolls and customs were levied on all boats passing southwards and northwards. Around AD 330, the legion stationed here received a bishop from Alexandria; this later became the Coptic Diocese of Syene.^[2] The city is mentioned by numerous ancient writers, including Herodotus,^[3] Strabo,^[4] Stephanus of Byzantium,^[5] Ptolemy,^[6] Pliny the Elder,^[7] De architectura,^[8] and it appears on the Antonine Itinerary.^[9] It also is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Isaiah.^[10]

View of from the Tombs of the Nobles on the other side of the Nile

The latitude of the city that would become Aswan – located at 24° 5′ 23″ – was an object of great interest to the ancient geographers. They believed that it was seated immediately under the tropic, and that on the day of the summer solstice, a vertical staff cast no shadow. They noted that the sun's disc was reflected in a well at noon. This statement is only approximately correct; at the summer solstice, the shadow was only 1/400th of the staff, and so could scarcely be discerned, and the northern limb of the Sun's disc would be nearly vertical.

Eratosthenes used measurements at Aswan (Elephantine) to determine the circumference of Earth, using Syene as the originating point and Alexandria as the terminal point of a measured arc (based on shadow length at the solstice).

The Nile is nearly 3,000 yards wide above Aswan. From this frontier town to the northern extremity of Egypt, the river flows for more than 750 miles (1,210 km) without bar or cataract. The voyage from Aswan to Alexandria usually took 21 to 28 days in favourable weather.

Climate[link]

This section called "Climate" needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2011)

Aswan is Egypt's hottest, driest inhabited city^{[citation needed]}. Aswan's climate ranges from mild in the winter to very hot in the summer with absolutely no rain all year. There is maybe 1 or 2 mm of rain every 5 years^{[citation needed]}. Aswan is one of the driest inhabited places in the world; as of early 2001, the last rain there was seven years earlier. As of 6 April 2010^[update], the last rainfall was a thunderstorm on May 13, 2006. In Nubian settlements, they generally do not bother to roof all of the rooms in their houses^{[citation needed]}.

In winter the temperatures average from 11°C at night to 25°C during the day. In summer the temperature averages 25°C at night to 40°C during the day^[11][12]

Education[link]

In 1999, South Valley University was inaugurated and it has three branches; Aswan, Qena and Hurghada. It was the first university in Upper Egypt and it was organized in departmental basis. The university grew steadily and now it is firmly established as a major institution of higher education in Upper Egypt. Aswan branch of Assiut University began in 1973 with the Faculty of Education and in 1975 the Faculty of Science was opened. Aswan branch has five faculties namely; Science, Education, Engineering, Arts, Social Works and Institute of Energy. The Faculty of Science in Aswan has six departments. Each department has one educational programme: Chemistry, Geology, Physics and Zoology. Except Botany Department, which has three educational programmes: Botany, Environmental Sciences and Microbiology; and Mathematics Department, which has two educational programmes: Mathematics and Computer Science. The Faculty of Science awards the following degrees: Bachelor of Science in nine educational programmes, Higher Diploma, Master of Science and Philosophy Doctor of Science. Over 100 academic staff members are employed in.

Transport[link]

Aswan is served by the Aswan International Airport. Train and bus service is also available.Taxi and rickshaw are used for transport here.

Gallery[link]

See also[link]

References[link]

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–57). "Aswan". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aswan

• Ancient Aswan City

v t e Egypt's largest cities by population Cairo Alexandria Giza Shubra El-Kheima Port Said Suez El-Mahalla El-Kubra Luxor Asyut Mansoura Tanta Faiyum Zagazig Ismaïlia Kafr el-Dawwar Aswan Qena Damanhour Minya Sohag Beni Suef Shibin El Kom Banha Edfu Talkha Kafr el-Sheikh Mallawi Dikirnis Bilbeis Arish

v t e Ancient Egypt Outline Index Glossary List of major topics Agriculture Architecture Art Burial customs Chronology Cuisine Dynasties Geography History Literature Mathematics Medicine Military Music Philosophy Religion Pharaohs (list) People Language Sites Technology Trade Writing Egyptology Egyptologists Egyptian Museum Category Commons Portal WikiProject