Both banks and the islands

Aswan

Aswan is a city on the Nile in the far south of Egypt, at the First Cataract. It divides into an east bank with the city, the station and the market; islands in mid-river, the oldest of which is Elephantine; and a west bank of desert, tombs and a monastery. There is no bridge to the islands — the river is the transport network.

FIG. 1 — DRAWN FOR ASWAN101

A river, two banks, a world of islands.

ILLUSTRATED EXPLANATION · NOT TO SCALETHE SETTING, THEN THE DETAIL

Choose a place in the drawing or the list. Look closer, then open its guide.

8 PLACES · ONE RIVER

Granite divides the river into channels.SCHEMATIC · NOT TO SCALE

04 / 08LIVING VILLAGES · AN ANCIENT FRONTIER

Elephantine Island

Living Nubian villages and the remains of ancient Abu share this island. To the south are the old town and temples of Khnum and Satet. Arrive by boat from the city: there is no bridge to Elephantine.

In the drawing Courtyard houses to the north give way to temple walls and accumulated town remains in the south.

Explore Elephantine

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WEST BANK · THE DESERT EDGE

Rock-cut tombs and a desert monastery.

BETWEEN THE BANKS · THE ISLANDS

A garden, living villages and an ancient town.

EAST BANK · THE CITY

Markets, museums and the granite quarries.

Text alternative & place guides

The Nile flows north. Qubbet el-Hawa’s tombs occupy the west bank, with the monastery farther south in the desert. The Botanical Garden is on a separate island west of Elephantine. Elephantine has living Nubian villages, with ancient town remains and nilometers at its southern end. On the east bank are the corniche and souq; the Nubian Museum and granite quarries lie south of the city centre. Islands are reached by boat; no bridge joins Elephantine to the city.

An illustrated overview, not a navigational map. North is towards the top; west stays on the left. Landmarks are enlarged and distances compressed to explain the setting. Crossings show connections, not exact routes, landing points or timetables. Philae and the dams lie farther south, beyond this drawing.

Start here

Four ways into the city.

First timeFirst-time guideEight questions answered, and the mistakes people make.What to doThings to do in AswanArranged by what you want from the day, not by category.AncientAncient AswanPhilae, Elephantine, the quarries, the tombs and the monastery.NubiaNubiaAn older civilisation that Aswan sits at the edge of.

Every place

The places we cover.

History · island settingPhilae Temple ComplexPhilae is a temple of Isis on an island in the Nile just south of Aswan, built and added to over roughly seven centuries by Egyptian, Ptolemaic and Roman rulers.Archaeology · living islandElephantine IslandElephantine is the island in the middle of the Nile at Aswan, and it is the town that was Aswan before Aswan.How things were madeThe Unfinished ObeliskThe unfinished obelisk lies in the ancient granite quarries on the southern edge of Aswan, still attached to the bedrock it was being cut from.Understanding NubiaThe Nubian MuseumThe Nubian Museum opened in Aswan in 1997 and was developed with UNESCO to hold and explain what was recovered from Lower Nubia before Lake Nasser covered it.Texts · the viewQubbet el-HawaQubbet el-Hawa is the cliff on the west bank opposite Aswan, cut with the rock tombs of the governors and expedition leaders who ran Egypt’s southern frontier in the Old and Middle Kingdoms.Desert · Christian EgyptMonastery of St SimeonA fortified Christian monastery in the desert behind Aswan’s west bank, founded in the seventh century, rebuilt in the tenth and abandoned in the thirteenth.The salvage campaign · quietNew KalabshaNew Kalabsha is a headland beside the High Dam where three rescued monuments were re-erected in the 1960s: the large Roman temple of Mandulis from Kalabsha, the small rock-cut temple of Beit el-Wali built for Ramesses II, and the unfinished Kiosk of Qertassi.Context, not sceneryThe Aswan High DamThe High Dam was built through the 1960s and completed in 1970, about thirteen kilometres south of Aswan.Shade · birds · doing nothingThe Botanical GardenA whole small island planted as a botanical garden, in the western channel just north of Elephantine.The present tenseAswan SouqAswan’s market runs along Sharia el-Souq, one street back from the corniche, for well over a kilometre.

ItinerariesHow much time do you have?One day to five, and what each one leaves out.The riverSail the NileFive ways to travel between Aswan and Luxor.PlanPractical planningGetting here, getting around, staying, timing and access.