home
Aswan is Egypt's sunniest southern city and is an ancient frontier town located about 80 miles south of Luxor. Its ancient times it was named Abu and Swenet. Modern Aswan is small enough to walk around in an afternoon. The city has a Corniche along the Nile from which you may hire a felucca (with skipper) for an hour or for an afternoon at remarkably cheap rates. Why not hire one for an hour and sail around Elephantine Island? It should only cost about 10 Egyptian pounds and is extremely relaxing.
At Aswan the Nile
is wide and dotted with lush and exotic
islands. There is an interesting soukh full of the scent and colour of spices, perfumes, cloth and
mementoes - be prepared to exercise your haggling skills here. It is
possible to watch the spectacular sunsets over the desert
while having tea (or something stronger) on La Terrace at the
Old
Cataract Hotel (so named due to its proximity to the Nile's first
cataract). Dating back to 1899, the hotel was once a rendezvous for royalty and leading world
figures. Its majestic location is unrivalled, the
views breathtaking. It is here that Agatha Christie was inspired to write
"Death on the Nile" and where the Agha Khan spent the winter
months. Aswan has been a favourite winter resort since the beginning of
the nineteenth century.
Every night Nubian
dancers and musicians perform in the Cultural Centre, just off the
Corniche. Folklore troupes recreate scenes from village life and perform
the famous Nubian mock stick-fight dances (somewhat similar to the English
Morris Dancing – which originated further down Africa’s Mediterranean
coast in Morocco and Algeria).
Ever since the
most ancient of times Aswan has been a strategic location. A garrison of
the Egyptian army is currently based here, but the city has also been home
to ancient Egyptian garrisons, as well as those of the Romans, the
Ottomans and General Kitchener.
The city itself
lies on the east bank of the Nile. The soukh runs parallel to the Corniche,
which continues past the Ferial Gardens and the Nubian Museum, and
continues on to the Cemetery. To the east of the cemetery are the famous
Aswan quarries from which high quality red granite has been dug for
millennia. Much of the red
granite used for ancient temples and colossi came from quarries in this
area. It is here that you can see the huge
Unfinished
Obelisk. The Unfinished Obelisk still lies unfinished in the bedrock;
a crack was discovered as it was being hewn from the rock. Possibly
intended as a companion to the Lateran Obelisk, originally at Karnak, now
in Rome, it would have measured 120-feet and weighed over 1150 tons when
complete. Just to the south of this lie two Graeco-Roman sarcophagi and an
unfinished colossus.
Of the islands in
the Nile here, the largest is Elephantine
Island which is home to artefacts dating from pre-Dynastic times
onward. This is probably due to its location at the first Cataract of
the Nile, which provided a natural boundary between Egypt and Nubia. As an
island, it was also easily defensible and the ancient town located in the
southern part of the island was also a fortress throughout much of its
history. The name Elephantine originates from the Greek for elephant. In
ancient times, the island was called Abu (elephant- as in Abu Simbel). It
is possible that the island received its name because it was a major ivory
trading centre. Another possibility is that the island got its name from
the large grey boulders in the river near the island which resemble
bathing elephants, particularly from a distance. The town was also known
as Kom, after the god to whom the island was sacred, Khnum (Khnemu). There
are several ancient temples on the island, including that dedicated
to Khnum.
Just beyond
Elephantine is Kitchener's Island (Geziret el-Nabatat). It was named after
the British general Haratio Kitchener who was sent to Egypt in 1883 to
reorganize the Egyptian army, which he then led against the Sudanese Mahdi. The
island was given to Lord Kitchener who planted an exotic garden for which
the island is famous today.
On the opposite
shore (west bank), the cliffs are surmounted by the tomb of a marabut
(holy man), Qubbet el-Hawwa, who was a local saint. Below are
tombs
of the local (pharaonic) nobles.
A short way upriver is the tomb of Mohammed Shah Aga Khan who died in 1957. Known as the Tomb of the Aga Khan, it is beautiful in its simplicity and isolation. The Aga Khan was the spiritual leader of the Ismaiili sect of Islam and claimed direct descent from the Prophet Mohammed through Fatimah, the Prophet's daughter. The mausoleum is built from pink granite with the inner walls made from marble. Each day a fresh rose is placed in the tomb. Once a year, the Aga Khan's widow visits and hers is the only felucca on the Nile permitted to have a red sail.
A little further upriver is the original Aswan dam, built by the British in 1899, which was enlarged and expanded over the years, but ultimately proved insufficient to control the Nile floods. Further south is the Aswan High Dam, built during the 60's. This dam formed the largest artificial lake, Lake Nasser, which consumed almost the whole of Nubia. The lake is 316 miles in length and 18 miles wide in places. It can hold almost 5,500 billion cubic feet of water (157 billion cubic metres). Whilst many may question both the wisdom and the ethics of the building of the dam, there can be no questions as to it being a remarkable feat of engineering. The dam is 10,800 feet long (over 3.5 kilometres) and, at its base, almost 1 kilometre wide. It provides a huge amount of electricity and has reduced the country from 96% to 94% desert. However, the dam has raised the water level to the north which is endangering most ancient monuments and, as the river silt no longer fertilises the field during a flood, large quantities of fertilisers are required. There is also the possibility of a dam breach, which could have catastrophic consequences for the entire country. It is estimated that a "tidal wave" from a dam breach could reach the Mediterranean in just a few hours.
It was due to the creation of this lake that as many as 23 temples and shrines were dismantled and moved in a monumental exercise undertaken by UNESCO. One of these temples may be seen from the High Damn itself - Kalabsha. Perhaps the most famous temples to be moved were those at Abu Simbel. A trip to Abu Simbel is not usually included in a tour, but is almost always offered as an optional extra.
As the waters of Lake Nasser rose, it was to Agilka, an island in the waters between the two dams, that the Temple of Isis of Philae was moved, stone by stone. It was at Philae that the last recorded worship of an Egyptian god was recorded - long after the edict of Theodosius banning pagan worship, desert tribes worshipped here as late as AD 453. Philae is a beautiful place, and in the evening there is a sound and light show to rival that at Karnak. It is worth seeing the temple during the day, but there is nothing quite like taking one of the small boats across the water at night when the island is lit up.
Follow this link to the itinerary page for Philae
Follow this link to view the Aswan photo gallery