Asyut Dam

To the north of Asyut, at the village of El-Walidiya on the west bank of the Nile, rises the imposing Asyut Dam. Built by a British firm to the design of British engineers in 1898-1902, at the same time as the first Aswan Dam, it serves to regulate the flow of water in the lbrahimiya Canal, which starts here, and to irrigate more than 1,000,000 acres of land in the provinces of Asyut, El-Minya and Beni Suef. The dam, 40ft/12.5m high and 911yds/833m long, consists of 13 sections, the first of which (at the west end) has three arches and a lock to permit the passage of ships, while the others have nine arches each. The sluices, 111 in all, can be closed by iron gates.