The rock-fill dam is Egypt’s most important and impressive achievements in modern history. That engineering miracle took about 10 years to be built; work started in 1960 and was inaugurated in January 1971. The dam’s construction required about 44 million cubic meters of building materials, and a workforce of about 34000 people with an investment of 1$bn.

From the top of the dam you can gaze across Lake Nasser which was created by the dam and considered to be one of the biggest man-made lakes in the world; it extends all the way into the Sudan with a total length of about 340 miles (550 km). It serves the irrigation needs of both Egypt and the Sudan, controls flooding, generates power and helps navigation on the river Nile all year round.