THE NILE DAMS AND RESERVOIR. 555 



ber and July, for nothing would be gained by starting the temporary 

 enclosing embankments, or sudds, when the river was at a higher level 

 than it is in November; nor would it be possible at any reasonable 

 cost to prevent the sudds from being swept away by the flood in July. 

 At Asyfit the mode of procedure was to enclose the site of the proposed 

 season's work by temporary dams or sudds of sandbags and earthwork, 

 then to pump out and keep the water down by powerful centrifugal 

 pumps, crowd on the men, excavate, drive the cast-iron sheet piling, 

 build the masonry platform and piers, lay the aprons of puddle and 

 pitching, and get the work some height above low Nile level before the 

 end of June, so that the temporary dams should not require reconstruc- 

 tion after being swept away by the flood. The busiest months were 

 May and June, when in the year 1900 the average daily number of men 

 was 13,000. It is also then the hottest; the shade temperature rising 

 to 118 degrees. To keep the water down, seventeen 12-inch centrifugal 

 pumps, throwing enough water for the supply of a city of two million 

 inhabitants, had to be kept going, and in a single season as many as 

 one and a half million sandbags were used in these temporary dams. 

 The bed of the river being of extremely mobile sand, the constant 

 working of the pumps occasionally drew away sand from under the 

 adjoining completed portions of the foundations, necessitating the 

 drilling of many holes through the 10-foot thick masonry platform, 

 and grouting under pressure with liquid cement. About 1.000 springs 

 also burst up through the sand, each one of which required special 

 treatment. A new regulator had to be constructed for the Ibrahimiyah 

 Canal, with nine arches and sluices, to control the high floods and 

 prevent damage to the Canal and the works connected therewith. 



Aswan. 



Asvut, as already observed, is about 250 miles above Cairo. The 

 great dam at Aswan is 600 miles above the same point. Between Asyfit 

 and Aswan the remains of many temples exist, of far greater interest 

 and importance than those at Phila?. The latter ruins, however, have 

 attracted more attention in recent days, because, being situated imme- 

 diately above the Dam, the filling of the reservoir will partially flood 

 Phila? Island during the tourist season. 



It would be idle to speculate as to who first thought of constructing 

 a reservoir in the Xile valley, or who first arrived at the conclusion 

 that the site of the present dam above Aswan was the best one. Mr. 

 Willcocks, one of the ablest engineers of the Public Works Department 

 of Egypt, who was instructed by Sir William Garstin to survey various 

 suggested sites for a dam between Cairo and Wady Haifa, unhesi- 

 tatingly decided that the Aswan site was the best, and the majority of 

 the International Committee, who visited the sites in 1894, came to 

 the same conclusion. This conclusion had, however, been anticipated 



