In the 1890s British engineers devised a project to construct a dam on the Nile at Aswan. The rationale of the project was to improve agricultural productivity in the country by increasing the amount of water available for irrigation in Middle and Lower Egypt. Damming the Nile at Aswan, however, had the drawback that it would cause the submergence of the island and temples of Philae adored by scholars, artists and tourists alike. The pending destruction of Philae sparked a controversy in Britain with London and Egypt-based British engineers placed in the centre of events. This chapter analyses this controversy in detail and demonstrates that the clash over dam and temple brought out and reinforced two conflicting understandings of what ‘civilizing obligations’ the British had acquired when Egypt was occupied in 1882; the obligation to modernize and the obligation to preserve. It argues, moreover, that these contrasting views were rooted in ideas of contemporary Britain and of ancient Egypt and much less in understandings of contemporary Egypt and the perceived needs of the population in the region.