Sadd el-Kafara: The Oldest Dam in The World

About 40 km southeast of Cairo, close to the town of Helwan, lie the ruins of the Sadd-el-Kafara, a large embankment dam built approximately 3,700 years ago. Its primary purpose was to contain the waters stemming from sudden storms and heavy floods. It also served the dual function of providing water to laborers and animals involved in quarrying stone and marble for the construction of the pyramids and temples in the vicinity. Unfortunately, the dam was destroyed by a flood before it could be completed. Rediscovered less than 140 years ago, today it is recognized as the oldest dam of such size in the world. Photo credit: Matthieu Götz The dam is situated in the Wadi Garawi, one of the numerous wadis in the desert east of the Nile Valley. The dam is located at the narrowest point of the Garawi ravine at a point where the valley narrows to about 100 meters wide. The dam was originally 113 meters long and 14 meters wide, with a base width of 98 meters and crest width of 56 meters. The dam's core was 32 meters wide and would have consisted of 60,000 tons of earth and rock-fill. If completed, the dam would have stored between 465,000 to 625,000 cubic meters of water. Today, only the ends of the dam on both sides of the wadi stand. The central section was washed away leaving a gap of roughly 50 to 60 meters wide. The dam’s location in the Wadi Garawi is somewhat of a curiosity. It has been conjectured that the dam was built not for irrigation but rather to manage the sudden flash floods common in the narrow valleys. There is no evidence of cultivated land around the dam which may require water for farming. Also, the absence of spillways in the dam indicates that the reservoir was not built for irrigation. Yet, the absence of important settlements in the vicinity raises question among various authors about what precisely the dam was intended to protect.