High Aswan Dam and Lake Nasser
Dam and hydroelectric scheme, 162 km3 gross reservoir storage; 2,100 MW in Egypt.
Operational
Landmark The dam that ended the Nile flood, and still the single control point for Egypt's whole water year.
The record
- Country
- Egypt
- Location
- Aswan
- Coordinates
- 23.971, 32.879
- Technology
- Dam and hydroelectric scheme
- Capacity
- 162 km3 gross reservoir storage; 2,100 MW
- Capital cost
- US$1 billion
- Stage
- Operational
- Owner or client
- Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation
- Contractor
- —
- Operator
- —
- Finance
- Government
- Award or start year
- 1970
- Commissioned
- 1970
Record last checked 2026-09-18.
History
- 1960
Construction begins
- 1968
Dam structure completed
- 1970
Dam completed
- 1971-01
Formal inauguration
Sources
6 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- FAO AQUASTAT regional dam inventory (Africa), as carried in the site's own dam register: High Aswan dam on the Nile, completed 1970, 111 m high, 162,000 million m3 of reservoir capacity, at 23.971 N 32.879 E. ILEC World Lake Database, Aswan High Dam Reservoir. wldb.ilec.or.jp.
- Total reservoir capacity 162 km3, made up of dead storage 31.6 km3, active storage 90.7 km3 and emergency flood storage 41 km3; surface area 6,000 km2; maximum depth 110 m; catchment 2,849,000 km2; reservoir extends 500 km, two thirds in Egypt as Lake Nasser and one third in Sudan as Lake Nubia; dam body given as 2,325 m long, 40 m wide at the crest and 980 m at the base; dam dated to 1968 and sited 7 km south of Aswan.
- Power Technology, Aswan High Dam. power-technology.com.
- 12 Francis turbines and installed capacity 2,100 MW; construction from 1960; design by the Hydroproject Institute of Russia with Egyptian engineers; reservoir given as 132 km3 and irrigated area about 33,600 km2 (bot-walled to curl, read via fetch).
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, Aswan High Dam. britannica.com.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
cited only for the construction cost of about US$1 billion, which no primary source in this pass published; also gives 1970 completion, formal inauguration January 1971, crest length 3,830 m and a gross Lake Nasser capacity of 169 billion m3, higher than the 162 km3 used here (bot-walled to curl, read in a browser).