Aswan, sunniest southern city & ancient frontier town, has a distinctively African atmosphere .
Here the Nile is at its most beautiful, flowing through amber desert & granite rocks, round emerald islands covered in palm groves & tropical plants.
In Aswan the pace of life is slow & relaxing. The visitor can walk around watching the sailboats or sit in floating restaurant listening to Nubian music & eating freshly-caught fish.
Long ago Aswan was Egypt’s gateway to the south & the commercial bridge from Egypt to Central Africa.
Aswan is about 900 km. south of Cairo; it enjoys a dry warm climate in the winter, making it a favorite place & a popular winter resort.
Aswan has beautiful natural scenery. One can see lines of small boats sailing across the Nile carrying the city visitors to the islands.
In Aswan there is an island called Kitchener Island or The Botanical Garden, it includes many kinds of plants & flowers from the Middle East & Far East.
Elephantine Island in Aswan represents the ancient boarder of Egypt. There is a museum with some monuments & tombs of some of the ancient Aswan princes.
On the eastern bank of the Nile, south of Aswan are the ancient granite stone quarries. The stones used to build the Pharaonic buildings & structures were cut from the quarries.
Kalabsha Temple is on the western bank of the Nile, it faces the new
High Dam, it is one of best examples of Egyptian art from the Roman time.
In 1962 German group dismantled the temple & moved it from its original site to its present site to save it from submersion in the Nile water.
Opposite to Elephantine Island on the western bank of the Nile are the tombs of the nobles, in a place called “Dome of the Air”.
In Aswan there is Philae Temple is one of the most important monuments in Aswan. It was dedicated to the goddess Isis. Before building the High Dam, this temple was submerged under water most of the year.
By UNESCO the temple was dismantled & moved to its present site (Agilika Island) to be saved.
A sound & light show about the history of the area is presented daily at the temple in different languages.
Abu Simble Temple is about 280 km. from Aswan on the western side of the Nile, it faces the sunrise & it is the largest rock cut temple in all of Egypt. Ramses II built it between 1300 & 1233 BC.
UNESCO in 1965 moved the temple of Abu Simble to its present site to save it rom submersion. About 50 countries contributed to the moving operations.
There are some other places for sightseeing in Aswan, e.g. Aga Khan Mausoleum, the Monastery of St. Simeon, the Unfinished Obelisk & the High Dam.
As a result of the importance of Aswan to the Egyptian tourism, there are many tourist hotels such as: Amon Tourist Village, Aswan Oberoi, Isis Island Hotel, Old Cataract, Basma, Kalabsha & Cleopatra Hotel.
