Aswan (horse) Egyptian," Aswan's maternal great-great grandsire, Sotamm, was a horse whose pedigree traced entirely to the horses purchased by Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt from the stud of Ali Pasha Sherif and imported to England. Sotamm was foaled in England and then sold to the Egyptian government by Lady Wentworth of the Crabbet Arabian Stud. In a near-similar manner, Sotamm's grandsire Mesaoud, imported from Egypt by the Blunts, also sold to Russia and stood at the Tersk Stud when it was privately owned by Count Sergei Aleksandrovich Stroganov and his brother-in-law Prince Aleksandr Grigorievich Shcherbatov. Aswan (horse) Aswan (1958–1984), originally named
Aswan Low Dam on 10 December 1902, by HRH the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. The project was designed by Sir William Willcocks and involved several eminent engineers of the time, including Sir Benjamin Baker and Sir John Aird, whose firm, John Aird & Co., was the main contractor. Capital and financing were furnished by Ernest Cassel. The Old Aswan Dam was designed as a gravity-buttress dam; the buttress sections accommodate numerous gates, which were opened yearly to pass the flood and its nutrient-rich sediments, but without retaining any yearly storage. The dam was constructed of rubble masonry and faced with red ashlar