Greater Aswan and Lake Nassar
Aswan as the capital of the south of Upper Egypt is considered a unique example of Egypt's ancient African history, since the beginning of life on the Nile banks till our present age. This is clearly evident in its ancient antiquities and its modern urban revival. Tourism is no longer confined to the wealthy, but there's also a new kind of tourism, one just right for the African Diaspora, students and knowledge seeker, or regular holiday travellers.
Aswan was the first governorate to prepare an excellent position for camping to be the centre of this kind of tourism. So the idea of this touristy camp was a pioneer accomplishment to make Aswan a distinguished façade, receiving visitors of all nationalities.Aswan is the city of the post-glorious history and prosperous present. It's the Queen of winter resorts famous of its fine weather and bright sunshine. It overlooks the east bank of the Nile, bounded by Kena governorate at the north, and at a distance of 899 km from Cairo and 208 km from Luxor.
The main attractions in this cultural and entertainingly rich area are:
The Nubian Museum (Aswan)
Kitchener's Island Botanical Garden
The Unfinished Obelisk (Aswan)
Philae Temple (Aswan)
Kalabsha Temple (Aswan)
Aswan Museum (Elephantine Island)
Elephantine Island has wonderful gardens and is a good place to spend some leisure time wandering through the Nubian village where the people are friendly and the houses are often very colourful. The houses often have paintings or carved with a crocodile at the bottom, a fish in the middle and a man on top, with a woman's hand made of brass as a door knocker between the fish and man. Elephantine is Greek for elephant.
The island offers exceptional bird-spotting. You may spot a Green Heronamong many other breeding and migratory water birds such as the Egyptian Gooseand Black Kitecircle overhead, having made the tower of the Oberoi Hotel a regular perch. Amongst them you may also spot a Lappet-facedor an Egyptian Vulture.
Elephantine Island was considered to be home of this important Egyptian god, and while this structure dates back to the Queen Hatshepsut of the 18th Dynasty, there are references to a Temple of Khnum on the island as early as the 3rd Dynasty. There are also ruins of a Temple of Satet, who was Khnum's female counterpart. The three foremost local deities were Khnum, Satetand a local Nubian goddess Anqet. These gods were worshipped here since the earliest dynasties, also build by Queen Hatshepsut, a shrine to Hekayib from the 6th Dynasty, a local governor who was deified after his death. His cult flourished during the middle kingdom, and some fine statues from the shrine are now in the museum.
You will also find a 3rd Dynasty granite step pyramid which is now just visible, and to the north, the mud-brick vaults of the late period which housed the bodies of the royal rams. On the south end of the island is a small one room Ptolemaic Templewhich was constructed from materials removed from the Kalabsha Temple.
Tombs of the Nobles (West Bank)
St. Simoen Monastery (West Bank)
Sehel Island & Garb Sehel
First Cataract Islands
High Dam and Aswan Dam
Garb Aswan (West Bank)
HISTORICAL NOTES:
The Pharaohs named Aswan "Sono" and changed by the Greeks into "Sebn" then it became Assuan in the Coptic language, to be pronounced later "Aswan" by the Arabs. The Nubians called it "Eswangi" which meaning the outflowing water as the Ancients thought that the source of the Nile was the first fall at the south of Aswan.When Egypt decided to construct the High Dam, the World's attention was by the wonderful scheme its design, scale, volume, cost and its enormous benefits to both Egypt and the Sudan, in addition to its political effects including the nationalization of the maritime Suez Canal. The people of Halfa city were moved to Khashm El- Girba (600km south of their original homes) where a new dam was built in 1964 to allow for expansion in cultivation for the benefit of these people for raising their level of economic prosperity. In Egypt, the situation was different. The Egyptian Nubian had undergone three severe cases due to the flooding of their lands. The first case was in 1902 when the Old Aswan Reservoir was initially built, while the second and third cases were in 1912 and 1933 when the dam was heightened On each case the inhabitants of the flooded area in Nubia preferred to live on the meager cultivation of small patches of land lying at a higher level between the rocks in their natives soil, rather than make a big change for the better by emigrating. The obstinately rebuilt their houses a little higher up and most of the men went to work in the towns of the North in order to be able to send money home to attain their homes families.
THE EGYPTIAN NUBIANS BEFORE THE HIGH DAM:
The Egyptian Nubians were deeply attached to their soil. They had rarely thoughts of emigration to another area. Originally, the Egyptian Nubians of about 50 thousands of population inhabited an area along the Nile between Aswan and Adendan on the Sudanese border for a distance 320km. The inhabitants are composed of three ethnic groups the Kenuz , The Arabs, and the Fadga where they lived in well defined regions, occupied in separate ethnic groups. Each group has its own spoken dialects in addition to Arabic, which is used by the Arab group. In the new Nubia, the three groups are resettled in three separate areas to ensure the independence of each one. The facades were mostly plastered, painted and decorated. Mastabas (the low clay benches along the front of the houses) were often built to serve their traditional function as outdoor places for neighbourhood gatherings and entertainment individual and combined barns were also built to keep animals out of the houses in order to maintain cleanliness of the living quarters. The climate of the new settlement area much resembles that of Nubia. The land is ample and all villages are near their own fields. In general the whole project was based on principle of justice and self-sufficiency. Full attention was to the Nubian's spiritual as well as physical welfare.
THE FARMING LAND:
In KomOmbo, the settlement scheme in addition to the provision of new houses for the Egyptian Nubians, included the reclamation and cultivation of new land as compensation for the land which was covered by the waters of the reservoir An area of almost 28000 feddans has been reclaimed in KomOmbo. It was distributed among the evacuated Nubians and a new class of small landowners has been created. The scheme of land development comprised digging of irrigation canals, installation of water pumping stations and was completed well before the end of 1964.
THE COMMUNTY SERVICES:
The Egyptian Nubians are generally quite with the public community services, being in fact greater in quantity and quality than that ever before communication and transportation services have been well developed and becoming everywhere over the area. Post-office, telegraph and telephone offices are well established. Two main roads connecting the settlement area with the surrounding towns and cities; in addition to a regular railway and bus services. Electricity is also available for lighting village roads and government offices.
Stealth Tourism and Travelling Under the Radar
We take pride in our flexibility and our ability to travel as locals. These two attributes allow us to call ourselves stealth tourists.
Your travel partner in Aswan, Upper Egypt:Travel 2 Culture provides planned Egypt holidays, African cultural insight, Black history awareness, Nile Valley expeditions, private guide services and customised itineraries to the discerning or independent traveller. We specialise in extended-period guide services, travelling by your side for days rather than hours! We also take pride in offering friendly experienced regional experts, whom are dedicated to providing fun, cultural, informative and peaceful short (1-5 day) tours. Witness for yourself, how we're more than just your travelling concierge, our past clients consider us their Nubian friends in Africa, friends they can call on to meet them at the airport, do the driving/sailing, and introduce them to the country and culture as only locals can. We make Egyptian and Nubian holidays easy for you! Why not visit Nubia and see for yourself?