03Cities and regions

Gateway to Nubia

Aswan

Aswan is a winter town on the east bank of the Nile at the First Cataract, where granite boulders break the river and white sails slip between them. It was the southern frontier of ancient Egypt, and its quarries supplied the granite for many of the country's monuments. One of them still holds the Unfinished Obelisk, lying in the bedrock: had it been completed it would have stood about 42 m tall. On Agilkia Island stands the temple complex of Philae, moved from its own island when the water threatened it; its 95 structures were taken apart and rebuilt on higher ground. Upstream is the High Dam, built between 1960 and 1970, which created Lake Nasser, 479 km long. On the west bank, the Nubian village of Gharb Soheil, about a century old, paints its houses blue and white with bright patterns. The Nubian Museum, opened in 1997, tells the region's story. Hire a felucca at sunset, and visit Philae by boat in the morning.

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Structures moved from Philae

0 km

Length of Lake Nasser

about 42 m

Length of the Unfinished Obelisk, if finished

1997

Nubian Museum opened