With the desire of accomplishing this, Sir Benjamin Baker, the leading authority on engineering works in Egypt, prepared a scheme for reserving a vast storage of water in Upper Egypt at aswan.
"History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12)"
S. Rappoport
aswan, six hundred miles south of Cairo, was selected as an advantageous site because the Nile at that place flows over a granite bed, and is shut in on either side by granite rocks, which, when the course of the river is barred, would form the shores of the artificial irrigation lake.
"History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12)"
S. Rappoport
The official opening of the dam took place on the 10th of December, 1902. The dam at aswan is the greatest irrigation project ever yet undertaken, but is by no means the last one likely to be executed in relation to the waters of the Nile.
"History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12)"
S. Rappoport