Its primary purpose was to contain the waters stemming from sudden storms and heavy floods.
Unfortunately, the dam was destroyed by a flood before it could be completed.
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 dams location in the Wadi Garawi is somewhat of a curiosity.
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.
While the construction on the upstream side was largely finished, the downstream section remained significantly underdeveloped.
The dam’s crest sloped inward, potentially intended by the engineers as a spillway.
The collapse of the dam probably caused a catastrophic flood in the lower wadi.
The dam was discovered in 1885 by the German archaeologist Georg Schweinfurth.
The missing mid section and the resulting exposed cross-section allowed archeologists to study the dams construction.
The sides of the dam are said to be in excellent condition.
