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ASWAN :
Aswan City
Aswan, Egypt's sunniest southern city and ancient frontier town located
about 81 miles south of Luxor, has a distinctively African atmosphere.
Its ancient Egyptian name was Syene. Small enough to walk around and
graced with the most beautiful setting on the Nile, the pace of life is
slow and relaxing. Days can be spent strolling up and down the broad
Corniche watching the sailboats etch the sky with their tall masts or
sitting in floating restaurants listening to Nubian music and eating
freshly caught fish.
In Aswan the Nile is at its most beautiful, flowing through amber desert
and granite rocks, round emerald islands covered in palm groves and
tropical plants. Explore the souk, full of the scent and color of
spices, perfumes, scarves and baskets. View the spectacular sunsets
while having tea on the terrace of the Old Cataract Hotel (Named due to
the location of the Nile's first cataract located here). Aswan has been
a favorite winter resort since the beginning of the nineteenth century,
and it's still a perfect place to get away from it all.
Every night Nubian dancers and musicians perform in the Cultural Center,
just off the Corniche. Folklore troupes recreate scenes from village
life and perform the famous Nubian mock stick-fight dances.
Dancers at the Cultural Center
Aswan is a strategic location which currently houses a garrison of the
Egyptian army, but which has also seen ancient Egyptian garrisons, as
well as that of General Kitchener, Turkish troops of the Ottoman empire
and the Romans.
The city proper lies on the east bank of the Nile. Relax here, visit a
few mosques, but then prepare for an adventure. The bazaar runs along
the Corniche, which continues past the Ferial Gardens and the Nubian
Museum, and continues on to the Cemetery, with its forest of cupolas
surmounted tombs from the Fatimid period. Just east of the cemetery in
the famous area quarries is the gigantic Unfinished Obelisk. Just to the
south of this, two Graeco-Roman sarcophagi and an unfinished colossus
remain half buried in the sand.
The most obvious is Elephantine Island, which is timeless with artifacts
dating from pre-Dynastic times onward. It is the largest island in the
area. Just beyond Elephantine is Kitchener's Island (Geziret el-Nabatat).
It was named for the British general Haratio Kitchener (185--1916) and
was sent to Egypt in 1883 to reorganize the Egyptian army, which he then
led against the Sudanese Mahdi. But the island is known for its garden
and the exotic plants the Kitchener planted there, and which continue to
flourish today.
On the opposite shore (west bank), the cliffs are surmounted by the tomb
of a marabut, Qubbet el-Hawwa, who was a local saint. Below are tombs of
the local (pharaonic) nobles and dignitaries.
Upriver a bit 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. A
road from there leads back to the Coptic Monastery of St Simeon, which
was built in the sixth century in honor of Amba Hadra, a local saint.
Just up river a bit, there is also the old Aswan dam, built by the
British, which was enlarged, expanded, but unable to control the Nile
for irrigation.
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