Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1899-12-20
THE BIG NILE DAM.
War in South Africa May Prevent It's
Completion

engineering effort which has ever been
begun in the world-the damming OF
the Nile. Should those complications
ensue that have been foreshadowed,
the Intervention on one pretext or an
other of Russia, France and Germany,
about the first thing that would hap
pen would be the forced evacuation OF
Egypt by the British. Her majesty
would be too fully engaged in other di-
rections to hold the country where she
has only been tolerated" as the
Frenchmen say with gritted teeth.
With the withdrawal of England the
Nile improvements would cease at
once, and an end, perhaps only tenn
porary end, to be sure, would be put to
the Nile enterprise.
Nothing more serious or more pitiful
could happen The stoppage of the
work on the Nile dam would be ca
lamity involving the progress of the
entire Egyptian people. of whom there
are over nine million. 1t would affect
directly over two million peasants, who
will be put back just as many years
as the work is interrupted. Its early
completion means to these two million
the lifting of a burden of taxation un-
der which they are struggling without
hope of relief from any other source.
To the world at large the successful
issue of the Nile work will mean the
readjustment of physical geography on
a scale never before attempted by man.
The reclamation of the desert of "a
hara could alone be put in the same
category. 1t is not alone that two and
a half million acres of land Will De
brought under yield; that over S2UO.-
OOO 900 will be added to the land values
of the Egyptian people; that the popu-
lation of the country will be practically
doubled in a few years; but that
greater area of the surface of the earth
will be changed, be made over, as it
were than has ever been affected be-
fore in the recorded history of the hu-
man race since the time of Noah There
will be nothing like this change, except
the conditions that resulted in primeVal
times when the earth underwent one Oh
it's terrible commissions.
Where a barren, rocky, sandy waste
now exists, there will, on completion OF
the Nile dam, spring up a vast lnlaho
sea with a surface of over ECO square
miles The sea or lake will extend mo
Nubia from the Egyptian frontier Tor
a distance of about $50 miles. To the
north the entire character of the ME
and Nile country will be changed lot
a distance of 600 miles. the changes
reaching clear into Cairo. and beyond
into the delta. and to the Mediterran-
can coast. For it is one of the marVeis
of this wonderful work that the water
imprisoned behind the dam at the ut
tie town of Assuan will bring about the
= NsrN~1 :
tracts 700 miles away in the delta to the
north. At present only about one-third
of the land lying between the two
mouths of the Nile is under cultivation
It is by long odds the richest land in
Egypt. probably in the world. A COM
paratively few years ago it was all
rnarshy waste.
In 1861 there was completed under !
French supervision what is known as
the "barrage," a dam at the apex of the
delta lust above Cairo. The barrage,
comparatively unimportant piece of
work. had taken twenty-four years to
build. 1t was intended to raise the
water level for navigation purposes
during the low Nile. Though it had
cost thousands of lives. and taken a
quarter of a century to construct. IL
proved but a limited process. SO inse-
curely had it been planned that in 1865
the sluice gates had to be hurriedly
raised to prevent the whole structure
from being swept away and washed il
sections to the Mediterranean. 1t was
reinforced by the French engineers IN
charge and managed to do part of the
work intended for it. but only part.
1t was never strong enough to serve
any great area in the delta until the
English came into exclusive control in
1888. Then Sir Colin Monrieff. the
English diplomatic agent and actual
ruler of Egypt, took the barrage in
hand. Under his administration the
dam was built up. and made as effect
i've as it's early faulty construction per-
mitted. Gradually the growing area In
the delta was increased until today
something over a million acres are
growing the finest cotton in the world.
What was formerly a sullen unclaimed
waste is now yielding s30,000O 900 annu-
ally in crops.
1t is related that the barrage, worth
less as it is as an engineering work of
permanent value, almost cost the world
the existence of it's most ancient and
inspiring monuments-the great pyra-
mids The construction of the work
the great, was khedive of Egypt. At
ter he had decided on the dam he placed
Mongel Bey, a French engineer, in
charge.
Where am I to get the stone for
barrage?" asked the Frenchman.
There" said Mehemet Ali, pointing
to the pyramids. From those great
useless heaps. Use them up, every
block if need he
Mehemet Ali, it is related, was not a
gentleman to be trif1ed with. He was
an autocrat of the kind who figure in
the Arabian Nights" The engineer
was literally between the devil and the
deep sea. AS a European he knew |
what would happen to him if he de-
stroyed the pyramids. The entire civ
ilized world would call down maledic- |
lions on his head.
On the other hand was Me- |
hemet Ali. with all the Egyptian scorn |
and disregard for the great antiquities |