Possible Clues:

• The mother bird of Egypt?
• A large bird -- cuckoo -- reflected in Nile landmark
• Engineering project begun in 1898
• The first man to wield a pen in Egypt's lake district
• A mother water bird?
• A mother lake bird?
• The sort of Egyptian mother bird that might have an ugly duckling
• Pen this in Egypt?
• Now a mother, she have been an ugly duckling in Egypt
• It was built across River Nile from 1899 to 1902