Abstract: Gouhou dam broke down on august 27 1993.It’s the first dam break in facing gravel sand damshigher than 70m located above sea level 3280m. In this paper the performance of the dam and causes re-sponsible for the dam break were briefly described,and the mechanism of the dam failure was alsoanalyzed and discussed.Lessons on the design,construction and management of this dam were summa-rized.Finally,some comments on the safety of the facing gravel sand dam were presented.