Aswan High Damn in Egypt

At the end our Nile River cruise from Luxor to Aswan, we visited the High Damn. Most of us have heard about the Aswan damn, but there are really two damns, an older damn and the newer one, which is referred to as the High Damn. It was built to end the flooding that used to occur on a regular basis along the Nile River and has truly helped the agriculture business in Egypt. In addition to controlling the water, it is also a source of a lot of the power needed in the regions, so power lines are abundant across the surrounding desert landscape. One interesting side effect of the damn was that it has trapped all of the crocodiles for which the Nile is famous south of the damn, so you won’t see any crocodiles between Luxor and Aswan.

The Aswan High Damn is interesting from a historical perspective, but actually visiting the damn is, quite frankly, not particularly fascinating. There are tours that you can take south of the damn, but we didn’t do any during our visit to Egypt. We spent about 30 minutes walking around the damn in the simmering heat of Aswan, which was the hottest location that we experienced during our time in Egypt. If you go to Aswan, it is probably worthwhile to see the damn, but it certainly isn’t worth going out of your way to visit, at least in our opinion.