---
node: spot_aswan_aswan_dam
type: spot
slug: aswan_dam
destination: dest_aswan
title: "Aswan High Dam"
lead: "The High Dam, completed in 1970, ended the Nile's annual flood and created Lake Nasser behind it. It is the single structure that most changed modern Egypt, for both the electricity it generates and the silt it withholds."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_aswan_aswan_dam.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:02010_05878_Aswan_High_Dam.jpg"
image_author: "Silar"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The dam is 3.8 kilometres long and 111 metres high, built with Soviet money and engineering after Western funding was withdrawn in 1956 — a withdrawal that triggered the Suez Crisis. It ended the floods that had renewed Egyptian fields for millennia, so farmers now depend on fertiliser, and the Delta is eroding without new sediment. Around 100,000 Nubians were resettled when the lake filled.

## Highlights

The visitor terrace on the crest gives the scale, with the lake on one side and the tailrace on the other. The lotus-shaped Soviet-Egyptian Friendship Monument stands at the western end. It is usually visited together with Philae and the unfinished obelisk in a half-day circuit.