Earliest Nile Dam

Assuming things are OTL save more interesting in controlling the flooding the Nile? The first serious thoughts into damming the Upper Nile began getting kicked about before WW1. The Aswan High Dam is not exactly groundbreaking in terms of dam-building: If you've got the money, men, and concrete there's no reason you couldn't see it getting done contemporaneously with the Hoover Dam. If not sooner: It's no meaner a feat of engineering than the Panama Canal, though there's going to be a lot of brute-force involved in that time-frame.

Your engineering bottleneck is, rather, is you want to save Abu Simbal and other archaeological sites that might be flooded. The earlier you build a dam in the Upper Nile the harder it is to save them due to cultural and monetary issues.
 
the periodical flooding of the nile was very important, since it fertilised the land with its silt deposits. pre- artificial fertiliser, a nile dam is a no go
 
Seeing as how they could build pyramids, why did the Pharohs not build dams?
How does the weight of the Aswan Dam compare with the weight of a pyramid?
 
Seeing as how they could build pyramids, why did the Pharohs not build dams?
How does the weight of the Aswan Dam compare with the weight of a pyramid?

saw what i wrote? the periodic flooding of the nile was essential to their agriculture
 
Seeing as how they could build pyramids, why did the Pharohs not build dams?
How does the weight of the Aswan Dam compare with the weight of a pyramid?

There are specific prohibitions in ancient Egyptian religion about obstructing the flow of the Nile. As a civilization, they were entirely dependent on the annual floods and they were aware of that. They didn't build a dam because they didn't want to.
 
Seeing as how they could build pyramids, why did the Pharohs not build dams?
How does the weight of the Aswan Dam compare with the weight of a pyramid?

1.) Why would they? As said, they needed the flooding of the Nile for agriculture and a dam would stop that.

2.) The difference in material and manhours is a world, but I don't know the answer to the question, but the answer would be irrelevant.
 
Assuming things are OTL save more interesting in controlling the flooding the Nile? The first serious thoughts into damming the Upper Nile began getting kicked about before WW1. The Aswan High Dam is not exactly groundbreaking in terms of dam-building: If you've got the money, men, and concrete there's no reason you couldn't see it getting done contemporaneously with the Hoover Dam. If not sooner: It's no meaner a feat of engineering than the Panama Canal, though there's going to be a lot of brute-force involved in that time-frame.

Your engineering bottleneck is, rather, is you want to save Abu Simbal and other archaeological sites that might be flooded. The earlier you build a dam in the Upper Nile the harder it is to save them due to cultural and monetary issues.

There's a much bigger engineering bottleneck than Abu Simbel at work in the Aswan High Dam.

If the Dam were to ever be seriously breached after construction, or after the reservoir necessary for the dam was ready, there's the little problem of somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% of Egypt's population would be caught up in the flood zone.

That's part of why it took so long to build it in the first place: one mistake meant all of Egypt would be wiped out in the blink of an eye.
 
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