Next to the Great Nile itself,
Egypt's most awesome geographical feature is the Qattara Depression.
Shaped like some splayfooted giant's footprint, this enormous sinkhole
in the desert west of Cairo begins with a heel 35 miles south of the
Mediterranean shore and then runs southward into the desert for some
185 miles. Covered with rock salt and slimy quicksand, Qattara is as
desolate and lifeless as anything this side of the moon. Only generals
have ever placed any value on one of nature's worst mistakes. In World
War II Montgomery bunched his forces at El Alamein in the neck of land
between the Mediterranean and the nearly 1,000 ft. drop of the
Depression, and thus kept Rommel's Afrika Korps from Suez. The Qattara
was worth 200 armored divisions, said Rommel—to the British. Canal & Tunnels. Last week, after a month-long site study , nine West
German scientists and engineers settled down to write detailed reports
on a daring project to convert the Qattara into a mammoth new power
project. First suggested by the British more than 30 years ago, the
idea is to dig a ditch from the Mediterranean to within nine miles of
the Depression. Thence a tunnel would be bored under the rocky
escarpment that rises along the Depression's northern rim. Emerging
from the tunnel, the water would drop down the cliff into turbines to
generate 2.7 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year. For 160 years the water level would gradually inch up to form an inland
sea about half as big as Lake Erie. After that, the rapid evaporation
in the hot desert air plus some seepage and regulation of the water
intake would keep the level permanently some 150 ft. below sea level,
providing the United Arab Republic with a perpetual source of power.
Estimated cost of the project: $360 million. Sharing the Nile. For the U.A.R., Qattara could be a useful auxiliary to
the 10 billion kw-h expected from the Aswan High Dam. Except for
insignificant rainfall, Egypt depends totally on the Nile for
irrigation and power. Since 1,900 miles of the Upper Nile belong to the
Sudan and its headwaters to four other countries with demands of their
own, Egypt's future development may someday require more power than its
share of the Nile can provide. For a century, Lake Qattara could support a flourishing fishing industry
until the salt concentration became too great. After that, the lake
bottom could be mined for crystallized salt. If preliminary studies are
encouraging, a three-year engineering study will be required before
actual construction can begin.
