A few years ago, I flew from Cairo to Luxor to continue my Egyptian adventure, which had begun in Giza. I was on my way to fulfilling a lifelong dream: to tour Egyptian temples and the Valley of the Kings. 

First, my small travel group set off to learn about the construction of the High Aswan Dam, one of the world’s largest embankment dams. It was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. The goal was to better control flooding, provide increased water storage for irrigation, and generate hydroelectricity. 

The dam became a political hotbed: the US and Britain pulled funding and the Soviet Union financed much of the project. We visited a monument honoring the Soviet involvement.