The Nile River regularly floods it’s banks with fresh water. If this could be caught and retained, it would greatly enhance irrigation possibilities and by extension food production. Sounds like a project for a far sighted King, or at least a short sighted King looking for something to talk about. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Here’s an early stamp that really calls out for more color. A desert is being turned green with beautiful blue water. Also the stock portrait of Farouk could instead have him holding blueprints to better imply he was the guiding force. The stamps of period Egypte were trying hard to show the King freeing the people of colonialism. Better designs might have been more convincing.
Todays stamp is issue A73, a 100 Millimenes stamp issued by the Kingdom of Egypt in 1939. It was an eight stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.40 unused.
The below story refers to the still existing Aswan Low Dam, the Aswan High Dam was built later.
In the 10th century AD, Egypt was ruled by the Fatimid Caliphate. The Fatimids are believed descended from Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed. The Caliph had the idea for a dam on the Nile that could retain floodwater and thus expand agriculture. The great Arab mathematician, engineer, and physicist Alhazen was summoned from Basra in Iraq to work on the project. After checking out the obvious site near Aswan were the Nile was shallow, Alhazen thought the project impossible. What scared him though was disappointing the Caliph back in Cairo when he told that it wasn’t going to happen. Instead Alhazen pretended to have a mental breakdown and confined himself to house arrest until the death of the Caliph. The time at home was not wasted. His masterpiece work, the Book of Optics was completed in this time.
In 1882, Egypt was occupied by the British Army and commercial interests were free to pursue economic projects beyond the Suez Canal. A dam at Aswan was now thought more feasible and the Dam was designed by famed British Empire civil engineer Sir William Wilcocks and constructed from 1898-1902 by the London based firm of John Aird. The dam was the largest ever constructed of bricks but was smaller than desired to protect nearby historic sites. See https://the-philatelist.com/2020/09/25/pakistan-1964-egypt-sudan-and-pakistan-well-actually-unesco-save-the-nubian-abu-simbel-temples/ .
It must have been damaging to Egyptian pride to have such a worthwhile project accomplished by interlopers. It was even worse than that. Such a massive, private project requires creative financing. The financier making the project possible was German Jew Ernst Cassel. Cassel had stints in Paris and London financing heavy industry around the world. He managed his empire from a Swiss mountain castle named Riederfurka that was only accesable by mule. When the nearby village offered to improve the path to the castle, Cassel told them he would move away if they did. It will be a long wait before Egypt does a stamp honoring Cassel’s role in the project.
In the first years of the dam, there was no provision for electricity generation, though this was added later. There were also two additions making the dam taller. These later jobs had to be done without the firm of John Aird. It had been closed in 1911 after mucking up an extension of Singapore’s port facilities.
Well my drink is empty and there are so many people here worthy of a toast, all the way back to Alhazen, I worry of a hangover. To bad the group doesn’t include King Farouk. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.