The Dam is about one mile and a quarter in length, and at its deepest point it is 126 feet high. Sixty-five feet of water can be held up when the reservoir is full, and it is capable of storing about 1,200,000,000 cubic metres of water—that is to say, about the same amount of water as passes through Assouan in a single day when the flood is at its height. The face of the wall is a slope on the downstream side, and its width at the bottom corresponds approximately to its height. Seven hundred and eighty thousand cubic yards of masonry have been used. On the western side a ladder of four locks gives passage to boat and steamer traffic at all seasons. All parts of Egypt are to benefit in a greater or less degree from the extra summer supply. The original calculation assumed an amount to be distributed of 1,065,000,000 cubic metres. It was allotted as follows: _Cubic Metres._ South of Assiout 170,000,000 Assiout to Cairo with the Fayoum 510,000,000 Gizeh Province 85,000,000 Lower Egypt 300,000,000 This division meant that 52,000 acres could be reclaimed to cultivation in the Fayoum, and 120,000 acres in the Delta. Further, south of Assiout 200,000 acres could be converted to perennial irrigation by means of pumps upon the Nile banks. In Middle Egypt 458,000 acres could be converted to perennial irrigation, and in Gizeh Province 106,000. A low Nile on the average comes about once in five years, but assuming that it happened every year, these results may be expressed in terms of money on the basis that conversion to perennial irrigation increases the yield per acre by £2 annually, and that reclaimed land produces a yield valued at £5 annually. This gives an increase of value in the annual yield: £E South of Assiout 420,000 Middle Egypt and Fayoum 1,176,000 Gizeh Province 212,000 Lower Egypt 600,000 ----------- Total £E2,408,000 while the direct annual gain to the State Exchequer in rental and taxation would amount to £E378,400. This does not exhaust the full extent of the benefits of the Reservoir on which a money value can be placed. For some time Egypt had been living beyond her real resources in the matter of water. Encouraged by a series of good years, the acreage of cotton had been greatly extended. The cotton-plant is very hardy, and can retain its vitality for a certain period on a very scanty and irregular supply of water. Cultivators, especially in the Delta, had taken advantage of this quality up to the very hilt, and the annual crop had reached an amount of 6,000,000 kantars.