TRAVEL EGYPT TOURS
Take a relaxing ride on an Egyptian sailboat in Aswan and to enjoy the river breeze, a fantastic sailing expereince around Elephantine Island and a visit to the famous Botanical Gardens in Aswan
Aswan is derived from the Ancient Egyptian word Swan, which means "the market"! It was located on the main trading route between Egypt and the southern lands, where gold, slaves and ivory passed into Egypt.
The governors of the 6th Dynasty sent many expeditions to explore the many African countries located to the south, and most of these started from Aswan! It was also the major source of granite, sandstone and quartzite used in the construction of the various monuments throughout Egypt!
In Ancient times the God Khoum was the major God of the city, but in later periods the Goddess Isis, Goddess of magic and maternity, became the main patron God, with a temple being built for her at Philae.
Because of the location of Aswan, just north of the Tropic Of Cancer, the city enjoys a very hot climate throughout the year!
Aswan is capital of its own Governorate which has a population of about 1.2 million people. Most of these are Nubians, and local tribes of Kenzo.
The city became very important after the construction of the High Dam as it became a refuge for those Nubians who chose to flee to Egypt after the waters flooded their homelands, as well as becoming the worldwide rescue campaign of the Nubian monuments during and after its construction.
discover yOURSELF egypt
The Aswan Low Dam or Old Aswan Dam is a gravity masonry buttress dam on the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt.
The dam was built at the former first cataract of the Nile, and is located about 1000 km up-river and 690 km (direct distance) south-southeast of Cairo. When initially constructed between 1899 and 1902, nothing of its scale had ever been attempted; on completion, it was the largest masonry dam in the world.
The heightening did not meet irrigation demands and in 1946 it was nearly over-topped in an effort to maximize pool elevation. This led to the investigation and construction of the Aswan High Dam 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) upstream.
22 monuments and architectural complexes, including the Abu Simbel temples, that were threatened by flooding from Lake Nasser were preserved by moving them to the shores of Lake Nasser under the UNESCO Nubians Campaign. Also moved were Philae, Kalabsha and Amada.
The remaining archeological sites, including the Buhen fort have been flooded by Lake Nasser.
Elephantine is an island in the Nile River in northern Nubia. It is a part of the modern city of Aswan, in southern Egypt.
There are archaeological sites on the island.
Known to the Ancient Egyptians as Abu or Yebu, the island of Elephantine stood at the border between Egypt and Nubia. It was an excellent defensive site for a city and its location made it a natural cargo transfer point for river trade. This border is near the Tropic of Cancer, the most northerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon and from which it appears to reverse direction or “turn back” at the solstices.
The island has been inhabited from the Early Dynastic Period through Roman times until the present day. Its ancient name was ‘abu’ or ‘yebu’, which means elephant and was probably derived from the shape of the smooth grey boulders which surround the island, looking like elephants in the water.
Elephantine was a fort that stood just before the first cataract of the Nile. During the Second Intermediate Period (1650 – 1550 BC), the fort marked the southern border of Egypt.
Over the centuries there has been a great deal of building activity on Elephantine, though most of the ancient structures have now vanished.
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There are records of an Egyptian temple to Khnum on the island as early as the third Dynasty of Egypt. This temple was completely rebuilt in the Late Period, during the thirtieth dynasty of Egypt, just before the foreign rule that followed in the Graeco-Roman Period.There is little to be seen of the interior of the Temple of Khnum, but a large square granite gateway is one of the few surviving structures.
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Due to the importance of the Nile River in the ancient Egyptians life, stands the nilometer which can be seen at the left bottom of the picture.
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In now days on the island is also located the Aswan Museum.
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Further north, behind the museum building there is the site of a small restored Temple of Satis, the consort of Khnum, built in the time of Hatshepsut and Tuthmose III.The reconstruction by the German Archaeological Institute has been sensitively done, with the few reliefs supplemented by drawn elements.The temple was built over Middle Kingdom remains beneath different floor levels and also a Dynasty VI temple.
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The latest structure to emerge from the excavations at the Satis Temple is an Early Dynastic shrine which can be seen in a crypt-like area below the reconstructed temple, and this must be one of the earliest remaining temples in Egypt.
The area of Egypt we now call Nubia follows the River Nile from Aswan, 350km south to the town of Dabba, near the Fourth Cataract and the Sudanese border. It is thought that the name Nubia may be derived from the ancient Egyptian word for gold, ‘nbu’, as it was from this land that Egypt obtained most of its rich source of gold and Nubia was the passage from ancient Egypt to the exotic African lands farther south. Many pharaohs built small temples and fortresses along the banks of the Nile in Nubia and exported ebony, ivory, incense and precious metals and minerals back to Egypt, as well as Nubian slaves. Throughout Egyptian history Nubia has been alternatively an enemy or a conquered race, apart from a brief period in Dynasty XXV, when the Nubian (or Kushite) kings rose to rule Egypt as pharaohs.
Archaeologists have found close cultural ties between Egypt and Nubia from Prehistoric times and there is much evidence of this from the Egyptian objects found in Nubian graves. Scholars generally divide the history of Nubia into different cultural groups, assigning letters to each group: A, B, C, D etc. A-Group and B-Group cultures are loosely tied to the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom in Egypt. C-Group culture arose towards the end of the Old Kingdom and stretched into the Early New Kingdom, whilst the Third Intermediate Period is represented by the Kushite Kings and the Persian, Late and Ptolemaic Periods in Egypt were contemporary with the Meroitic Period in Nubia. At the peak of the Meroitic Period, around the 1st century AD, Egypt became a Roman province. Nubian culture went into a decline after this time and was dominated by different groups of desert tribes until the 6th century AD – a period assigned to X-Group culture. In 380AD, the Byzantine Emperor Theodisius I declared Christianity the official state religion in Egypt and ten years later banned all pagan religions in all parts of his empire, ordering the closure of temples in all parts of Egypt and Nubia, including the Temple of Isis at Philae in Aswan. The Nubians resisted and Isis continued to be worshipped for another two centuries, although by this time the new religion had found its way into the hearts of the Nubian people and many Coptic monasteries and churches had been built. By the 8-9th centuries, the Arabs had also established their presence in Nubia.
1 Statue of a lion, from Qasr Ibrim, Meroitic Period
2 Statue of Harwa, steward of Divine Adoratrice Amenirdis I, Dynasty XXV
3 Ankhnesneferibre, ‘God’s Wife of Amun’, Dynasty XXVI, from Karnak
4 Silver crown studded with carnelian stones, 3rd-6th centuries AD, from Ballana
Many of these temples were rescued due to the efforts of the United Nations Educational
Scientific and Cultural Organization,
The UNESCO project relocated many of these structures like Qaser Ibrim, the Temple of Dakka, the Temple of Derr, the Kalabsha Temple and the magnificent masterpieces of Philae and Abu Simbel.
One of the less fortunate temple that was damaged by the water of the Lake Nasser but was successfully relocated is the Temple of Gerf Hussein but lost many of its magnificent sections.
Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah,Aga Khna III had expressed a wish to be buried in Aswan in Egypt.
The Imam had a special place for Egypt ever since his first visit to the country in 1935.
In his Memoirs, the Imam writes:
“On my way home to India I visited Egypt for the first time. Those who have not experienced it, who have not been lucky enough to fall under Egypt’s spell, will find it difficult, I suppose, to realize the sheer magic of the first sight of Egypt.
And that my first sight was on a perfect early winter day, and need I say that all my life since then I have had a special corner in my heart for Egypt, and that I have returned there as often as I could".
A trip to Abu Simbel is the highlight of many Egypt visitors.This temple is one of the most visited site of Egypt due to its majestic construction.
Is the result of the breathtaking ambition of Ramses II.
The engineering effort of UNESCO preserved as continuing the propaganda of the king to achieve immortality. Today, visitors are still craning their necks in disbelief at the sheer majesty of the temples just as they must have done when the Temples of Abu Simbel were first built.
Abu Simbel is 280 kilometers south of Aswan. It is worth a visit on a half day trip from Aswan, by bus or by flight.
Many Nubians used to live in the valley of the Nile south of Aswan.
However, the artificial Lake Nasser created by the construction of the high dam flooded many Nubian villages.
As a result, more than 100,000 Nubian inhabitants of the area were relocated to villages north of Aswan and around Kom Ombo.
Nubians live in houses painted with bright colours. Traditionally, the floor was made of sand and not all the rooms were roofed. Protection against rain is not a priority since Aswan is one of the driest places in the world.
Nubians are friendly and hospitable.
They often invite you to their homes for a cup of tea or “Karkade”, a drink made of hibiscus flowers. Many would happily show you their handicrafts.
They sometimes invite you to taste their unique “Shamsi” bread which has a special baking technique. The bakers, usually the women of the village, let the dough rise in the sun before baking it. Some connoisseurs claim that the “Shamsi” bread is one of the best kinds of bread in the world.
After such hospitality, a reciprocal gesture of generosity is not necessary but would certainly be appreciated!
ASWAN sightseeing guide
Among the famous visits in Aswan is to see the botanical gardens of Aswan located opposite the city of Aswan and the Elephantine Island..
Other names of the island is Kitchener Island because in 1899 lord Kitchener during his military campaigns in the Sudan made the island his head-quarter for his army,
Since 1928 the ministry of irrigation has transferred the island into natural part full of trees from the 5 continents.
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Monastery of St.Simeon
The abandoned Monastery of St. Simeon is one of the largest and best preserved Coptic monasteries of all Egypt. The monastery is located on a hill on the west bank near the Aga Khan Mausoleum in Aswan and was once inhabited by thousands of residents.
The construction of the monastery begun in the 6th century, but it’s believed that it was not completed until the 7th century. It was first dedicated to Amba Hadra, a bishop of Aswan and a saint who lived in the fourth century. It is said that Amba Hadra, on the day after his wedding, encountered a funeral procession which inspired him to live the remaining years of his life as a hermit.
Originally, the monastery had walls ten meters high and towers which were used as lookout posts against enemies. From its point on the top of the hill, the monks could see for kilometers in all directions, and any approach to attack the monastery would be uphill in soft sand.
The monastery was rebuilt in the 10th century, but destroyed in 1173 by Saladin, who feared that it might serve as a refuge of Christian Nubians who made forays into southern Egypt.
Nowadays, the lower level of stone is mostly intact, but the upper level of mud-brick has vanished.
Inside the monastery there is a small church where icons and paintings are still visible. The walls are painted with pictures of the apostles and angels in bright colors and Byzantine style. Many of the frescos were deliberately defaced by the Muslim invaders.
ENTRANCE FEES
(as from July 2013)
Adult: 30 LE
Child: 15 LE
The Unfinished Obelisk lies, in its original location, in a granite quarry in Aswan.
It is 42m in length and was most probably abandoned when some cracks appeared in the rock, during its construction.
Had this obelisk been completed, it would have been the heaviest obelisk ever cut in Ancient Egypt, weighing nearly 1100 tons!
It is believed that it was constructed and abandoned during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty).
The island of Philae once served as the Ptolemeic headquarters of the cult of the goddess Isis, attracting worshipers and pilgrims from all over the ancient world beginning around 370 BC. When the first Aswan Dam was built in the early 1900s, the original site was often flooded and many of its original bright colors were washed away..
UNESCO swooped in from 1972-1980, spearheading a dramatic project to save Philae Temple. Engineers first created a dam around island and pumped the water out. They trucked out 22,000 pounds of mud. Then they carefully moved the temple, brick by brick, to the nearby island of Agilka
The earliest recorded attempt to build a dam near Aswan was in the 11th century, when the Arab polymath and engineer Ibn al-Haytham (known as Alhazen in the West) was summoned to Egypt by the Fatimid Caliph, Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, to regulate the flooding of the Nile, a task requiring an early attempt at an Aswan Dam.
After his field work convinced him of the impracticality of this scheme, and fearing the Caliph's anger, he feigned madness.
He was kept under house arrest from 1011 until al-Hakim's death in 1021, during which time he wrote his influential Book of Optics.
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