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- May, 13th, 1964

- For the Egyptian people, 4 days in May represent the main event of the year.

- They mark the completion of the 4th great pyramid of Egypt, the high dam of Assuan.

- To attend the meeting set by President Nasser, 3500, 000 men worked night and day during 4 years and 5 months,

- 53 weeks of incessant toiling that cost the life to 227 of them.

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- Yes, the great pyramid of Keops is overtaken by this gigantic work, that will absorb 4 billion 800 million Francs mainly supplied by the Soviet Union.

- The price they had to pay to sort out the rise of the Nile, to irrigate all the farmable lands, to produce the electricity in profusion, to give birth to industry in the valley of the Nile.

- 4 days will be needed to give body to this ambitious project,

- on May 13th, the progressive launch of the dam, through the derivation of the water of the Nile

- towards the huge wall of 980 meters at the base and 111 meters high and which 3, 600 meters of ridge will now jugulate the most capricious river in Africa.

- The 42 million square meters of the Saad El Aali were conceived to resist the pushes.

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- May 14th, 1964.

- On the following day, President Nasser and his guests were on the site again to attend the most spectacular phase of the operation,

- the total liberation of the water that was patiently accumulated and that will hurl into the derivation canal as soon as the huge sand plug will pop off.

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- That is how the Nile go in touch with what will now be its prison,

- that will take him 5 years to completely discover as it is only in 1970 that the gigantic lake, 500 km long, will reach its spreading level up to 182 meters above the sea.

- At this very moment, the 6 feeding tunnels of the power station in Saad El Ali will be in position

- to supply the 135 billion square meters of water needed for the 12 turbines to produce 12 billion kw per year,

- that is to say 5 more time than today’s Egyptian production.

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- Now, the Egyptian Fellah will not have to fear draught, famine and floods.

- The regulation of the flow of the Nile that frees 800, 000 hectares of new cultures secures his bread as long as his safety.

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- May, 15th, 1964.

- It is a strange world that appeared to the Egyptians on the dawn of the 3rd day.

- A world equal to the one known by our ancestor Noah as nobody could ever tell where the land began and where the water ended.

- Some men knew that not everything had come to an end, that there was no need to wait to make sure that the old Nile was properly dead,

- and on that purpose to definitively seal the doors of his tomb.

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- May, 16th, 1964.

- How many were they on the last day to contemplate their work?

- No witness could count this innumerable and moving crowd.

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- May be on that day President Nasser’s guests neglected a bit the bearing that is generally expected from officials.

- Historians will not hold it against them as they only were men among other men, witnesses of a new victory over nature, misery and fear.

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