Irrigation in Egypt and S.A. 447 



The several projects were submitted to Mr. (now Sir William) 

 Garstin, Under-Secretary of State, who reviewed them in a note, 

 giving his opinion generally in favour of a dam site at the Assouan 

 Cataract. He, however, suggested, seeing the magnitude and 

 exceptional nature of the work, that before coming to a final 

 decision, the Government should take the advice of a Commission, 

 composed of well known engineers. The projects were accordingly 

 submitted to a Commission composed of Sir Benjamin Baker, Mon- 

 sieur Auguste Boule, and Signer Giacomo Torricelli, who met in 

 Cairo in 1894. As a result of their investigations, it was decided to 

 construct a dam to hold up water to M.S.L. 374 feet at the site 

 recommended by Mr. Willcocks — viz., across the head of the 

 Assouan Cataract to the north of Phil?e Island. 



The construction of the dam at a height of 374 feet above 

 mean sea-level involved the submersion of the Philae Temple, and 

 stormy protests were lodged against the scheme by the principal 

 Archaeological Societies of Europe. 



The project was consequently reconsidered, and Mr. Garstin 

 eventually proposed a modified scheme, reducing the height of the 

 dam by about 26 feet, so that water should only be held up to 

 M.S.L. 348. This involved the reduction of the amount of water 

 stored, but left the principal temple free from submersion. Mr. 

 Willcocks then proceeded to prepare a revised project for a dam to 

 hold up water to this level at the Assouan site, and submitted it in 

 1895. 



As the lowest water level on the downstream side of the dam is 

 at M.S.L. 282.0, the greatest head of water on the dam is 66 

 feet. The storage capacity of the reservoir is about 37,500 million 

 cubic feet. It is filled between November and March, when there 

 is comparatively little silt in the Nile water, and when the water 

 in the river is in excess of that required for irrigation and discharged 

 in May, June and July in order to supplement the discharge of the 

 Nile during those months. The flood is discharged by means of 

 180 sluices through the masonry dam. In order to put the perennial 

 irrigation of Upper Egypt on a sure footing, and to enable it to take 

 its share of the Assouan reservoir water, it was necessary to provide 

 for the construction of a Barrage, similar in principle to the original 

 one at Cairo, across the Nile downstream of a canal which takes off 

 from the Nile at Assiout. In flood time the Assiout Barrage is not 

 ordinarily used ; in summer, however, with a maximum depth of 

 water on its upstream side of 15 feet, it may be called on to hold 

 up 8J feet, so as to direct water at a level higher than the natural 

 one into the canal mentioned above. 



Both these works were let out to contract to Messrs. J. Aird & 

 Co., in 1898, and were finished and inaugurated on loth December, 

 1902. The total cost of the two works was about ;^3,40o,ooo. 



It may be here mentioned that the first use that the Assiout 

 Barrage was put to was one for which it had not originally been 

 intended, namely, the regulation of flood. The work was practically 



