Aswan Egypt
Best places in Aswan Egypt , All Attractions in Aswan Egypt, Aswan excursions.
Aswan Egypt, Known as Egypt’s winter resort offers natural beauty with a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere of a warm and dry climate.
Philae Temple
Kalabsha Temple
The Unfinished Obelisk
Elephantine Island
Aswan High Dam
Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel Sun Festival
Things to do in Aswan
Aswan
Aswan Landmarks, Aswan Temples
A wide variety of ancient monuments and the peaceful beauty of the countryside draw visitors to Aswan through the winter months.
Lying 890 km south of Cairo, it is known as the “Gate to Africa” and the contact point between Arabian North Africa and sub-Saharan cultures.
Aswan was known as the Sonu in ancient Egyptian times and the meaning of the market was a commercial center for convoys coming from and to Nubia.
In the Ptolemaic period, it was called the “O” and was called by the Nubians “Yba Aswan”.
It was also known as the Land of Gold because it was a great treasure or a tomb of the Nubian kings who lived there for thousands of years.
The borders of Aswan extended before the migration from Aswan in the east to the borders of Sudan to the south and the population of the Nubians, but after the Islamic conquest of the Nuba country inhabited by some Arab tribes.
The importance of Aswan began in the era of the ancient state, which was the southern border of the country. It was also the center of the gathering of armies in the Middle Ages to try to extend their rule southward. It also played a crucial role in the fight against the Hyksos. The island of Philae, “the home of the god” Isis, “won the attention of the Ptolemies and completed its great temple. The Romans also built temples in Pharaonic style to approach the Egyptians. Examples of these temples include a small temple on the island of Philae erected by Emperor Trajan. When Christianity became the official religion of the country in the fifth century AD, most of the temples of the pharaohs became churches. The island of Philae was the center of one of the bishops, which led to the spread of Christianity southward towards Nubia in Egypt and Sudan. Since the spread of Islam and its appearance, many writings have been found in kufic script dating back to the first century AH. Aswan flourished in the Islamic era in the tenth century AD and was a way to “Aimab” on the Red Sea coast, where ships sail to Hijaz, Yemen and India It was also an important cultural center in the sixth and seventh century AH, and had three schools, The summer school, and the Star Academy in Aswan, and Muhammad Ali established the first military school in Egypt in 1837.
The city of Aswan and its surroundings is a tourist and archaeological area, where the number of foreign tourists from all over the world increases.
Philae Temple
Philae Island is an island in the middle of the Nile, one of the strongest fortifications along Egypt’s southern border. The Nile is separated into two different channels in Aswan. It has the Philae temple in Aswan and was moved from its original location on Philae Island to Agilica Island.
The temples of “Philae ” were originally built to worship the goddess “Isis”
The name Fila or Vilayi refers to the Greek language which means “beloved” or “granule”. The Arabic name for it is Anas: Egypt in the south. The group of worship was dedicated to the worship of Isis but the island contained temples for Hathor, Amenhotep, and other temples.
This temple, dedicated to the goddess Isis, was flooded and re-assembled in a new location above the island of Ijelica, about 500 m from its original location on the island of Philae.
The building houses a temple of Hathor.
The visitor can view Aswan’s sound and light show in the Philae temple at night in different languages.
The Unfinished Obelisk
Still attached to the quarry-bed with its three other sides and apex already carved, this graceful granite monument nearly 24 meters in length would have weighed 1164 tons if completed, It demonstrates the technique of detaching rock from a quarry by boring holes along prescribed lines, driving wedges into the holes, soaking the wedges with water causing them to expand and thus crack the rock face.
Elephantine Island
The main one of many islands that make up the Nile at Aswan, Elephantine Island is richly and overgrown with luxuriant palms. It was the home of two Nubian villages whose inhabitants still preserve their old traditions. It is also the location of the ancient nilometer and Aswan museum.
Aswan High Dam
The High Dam in Aswan has a massive accumulation of 42.7 billion cubic meters (17 times the volume of the great pyramid) of stones, sand, clay core, and concrete casing, extending 3.6 km in length and 111 meters in height.
Inaugurated in January 1971, after eleven years of work, it has created an immense reservoir, Lake Nasser, covering an area of 5250 km (510 km in length and 5 to 35 km in width) and is the second artificial lake in the world.
Kalabsha Temple Aswan
The current location of the Kalabsha temple on the banks of Lake Nasser is not the original site of the temple. It was moved in 1970 to a new place, which was called Kalabsha al-Jadida. The transport also included some of the effects of drowning threatened by drowning. The temple was dedicated to the worship of the Nubian god Mandolins, the god of fertility and sun at the Nubians. The Roman emperor Octavius Augustus (30-14 BC) began building the temple. Where the temple was then considered one of the largest temples of the Egyptian Nubian style. The design of the temple is the most common design in the period of the Ptolemaic period. It has a courtyard, an open courtyard, a column hall with three rooms for the holiest of holies. The temple is believed to have been built on ancient buildings dating back to the reign of Ptolemy IX, as evidenced by the temple. Inside the courtyard, which was once surrounded by a row of columns on three of its sides. On the wall that separates the courtyard and the hall of columns is the inscription of Aurelius Pesarion, ruler of Ambos and Aswan (about 249 AD), announcing the expulsion of pigs from the town for religious purposes.
At the back of the corridor, there are scenes depicting a Ptolemaic king offering offerings to Isis and Mendoles. There is also a view of King Amenhotep the Second, who founded the original temple depicting him offering offerings of wine to the god Men and Modules.
After the vestibule, there are three rooms where there is the temple’s nawus, as well as various scenes showing the king surrounded by the gods of Upper and Lower Egypt, where there is Amun, Ptah, and Maine.
The king also receives the holy cleansing water from Thoth and Horus. There are also other scenes depicting the king offering offerings to Osiris, Isis, and Mendoles.
Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel is located in Egypt in Lower Nubia, near the Sudanese border, 280 km south-west of Aswan.
It is a mountainous cliff of reddish sandstone that rises up on the west bank of the Nile (now on the western shore of Lake Nasser behind the High Dam), where Rameses II, the third Pharaohs of the nineteenth Egyptian family, was built, two temples engraved in the heart of the rock, The Egyptian sovereignty over it and the consolidation of the Maronites and the victory of the Hittites in Kadesh, these two temples were completed around 1206 BC. They were one of the greatest temples of ancient Egypt. They are usually called “The Great Abu Simbel “al-Kabeer” and “the Little Abu Simbel ” al-Saghir”, both larger and more magnificent than all the Egyptian rock temples of all times. “They are terrified of their architecture, their great proportions, their statues and the beauty of their walls.”
These two temples had been improved and studied since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The result of the study shows that the great temple was dedicated to Rameses II, united with the Lord Amun Ra, and the patronage of my sister (the sun). The younger is dedicated to Nefertari, the wife of Rameses II, united with the goddess Hathor.
Ramses Temple
The Great Temple
The height of the facade is 33 m and width 38 m, and enter the temple in the rock 63 m. Four giant statues of Ramses were carved into the façade, representing the lords. The upper part of one of them is broken. In spite of the enormity of these statues, the example was sculpted in the features of the handsome face, and the kind smile that receives the sun. Above the statues, the inscription of the names of Rameses II and his titles, “The Proverb and the Son of the Sun”. Above it comes a frieze of sacred snakes, followed by a carved frieze representing monkeys in a single pattern, raising their arms lazily for the bright sun. Above the gate, in the center of the façade, is a statue of the Lord Raa Hor. Beside the legs of giant statues, including the statues of the king’s family (his mother and beloved wife Nefertari and his children). It is clear that the representation of the family members was influenced by Akhenaten’s ideas, which were spread about a century earlier. Sculptures represent prisoners.
Abu Simbel, the Great Temple, chopping giant statues
One reaches the base of the gate to a baptismal base with eight statues, carrying 10 m high, representing Rameses in the form of Lord Osiris, the Lord of the Underworld and the Sun, and decorated the ceiling with falcons, wings and stars. On the walls of the base of the columns were sculptures depicting the stages of the Battle of Kadesh. The baptismal hall is followed by a smaller hall with four square columns carved with scenes representing Rameses II with the gods. At the base of this base are several rooms for the preservation of offerings. Then there was a chamber of holy places, and four statues in the chest: the Lord of Manfis, Amon Re, the Lord of Taibah, and Ramesses, and of the Lord Raa Hur my sister, Lord of the city of On. The first ray of sunshine enters the sanctuary, lighting the statues and removing the pharaoh from darkness, twice every year (20 February and 20 October).
Nefertiti Temple
The Little Temple
Located about 150 m north of the Great Temple. Its façade is decorated with six statues, four of them for Rameses II and the other for his wife, the great Queen Nefertari, united with the goddess Hathor.
One crosses the entrance to a baptismal hall, whose columns adorn the front of the head of the goddess Hathor, the “good” and on the other side, scenes of the king, the queen and the various gods. The walls are full of scenes from the king’s life, including scenes of his offerings with flowers, food, and drinks. This hall is followed by a second hall with walls depicting the king and his wife in the presence of the gods. Finally, one arrives at the Holy of Holies in front of the statue of Lord Hathor.
Abu Simbel, the small temple
Save the temples
These two temples were threatened with immersion, like other similar temples in Nubia, when the High Dam built.
In 1955, he began to think of saving these temples and in 1958 he set up the “Nuba Rescue Project”. In 1959, several solutions were proposed to protect the temples. In 1960, UNESCO appealed to all those interested in the world to participate in the rescue. In 1963, the Egyptian government, UNESCO and the concerned bodies adopted the method of cutting the two temples and transferring them to their current location on Mount Abu Simbel at a height of 65 meters above the previous level.
The work began in the same year and was attended by nearly 50 countries and archaeological bodies with UNESCO and Egypt.
After the engineering lifting, photographing, photocopying, and completion of all types of documentation, some 150,000 cubic meters of rock were removed from the two temples.
The stones were then started to weigh 10-15 tons per piece and were then restored to their new location and installed again The work was completed in 1966, and high technical work began to re-form the mountain over the temples. Over the great temple, a unique concrete dome of 59 m was made. Above the small temple was a dome that was equivalent to the first half and then covered with rocks, as was the case before. Methods of measuring heat and humidity Safety, disasters, lighting and other measures that have made the worktop in precision, technology and deep respect for the as a treasure of humanity’s treasures as well as their national value. In 1968, Abu Simbel became a first-class tourist center, including a power station, a water purification plant, hotels, clubs, official institutions, etc. The two worshipers now on the shore of Lake Nasser face the sun shining every morning.
Daily tour from Aswan to Abu Simbel by private tour.
Abu Simbel Sun Festival
Aswan Governorate celebrates the phenomenon of the sun on the face of Ramses II, the great worshiper in Abu Simbel, 13 information about the phenomenon of Pharaonic unique embodied by the ancient Egyptians for thousands of years.
1- The sun rays on the Holy of Holies in the Temples of Abu Simbel twice every year 22 February and 22 October.
- The sun passes through the front corridor of the entrance of Ramses II temple, 200 meters long until it reaches the Holy of Holies.
3 – The Holy of Holies consists of a platform that includes the statue of King Ramesses the Second sitting next to the Statue of God Ra Hor his sister and the god Amun and the fourth statue of the god Ptah.
4 – Interestingly, the sun does not perpendicular to the face of the statue “Ptah” which was considered by the ancient god of darkness.
- The sun-rise phenomenon takes only 20 minutes on that day.
The first is that the ancient Egyptians designed the temple based on astronomy to determine the beginning and enrichment of the agricultural season. The second story is that these two days coincide with the day of the birth of King Ramses II and the day he sits on the throne.
- The phenomenon of the sun was celebrated before 1964 on 21 February and 21 October, and with the transfer of the temple to its new location, change the timing of the phenomenon to 22 February and 22 October.
- The Abu Simbel Temple in South Aswan built after the construction of the High Dam due to the accumulation of water behind the High Dam and Lake Nasser. The international campaign to save the remains of Abu Simbel and Nubia between 1964 and 1968 was initiated by UNESCO in cooperation with the Egyptian government at a cost of $ 40 million.
9 – Moving the temple by dismantling the parts and statues of the temple and re-installed in its new location at a height of 65 meters above the river level, and is one of the greatest works in archaeological engineering.
- The Temples of Abu Simbel were discovered on August 1, 1817, when the Italian explorer Giovanni Belonzi succeeded in finding them among the sands of the south.
11 – The phenomenon of sun constipation was discovered in 1874, when the explorer “Emilia Edward” and the accompanying group, this phenomenon and recorded in her book published in 1899 entitled “A thousand miles over the Nile.”
12 – King Ramses II built his large temple in Abu Simbel, and built beside him the temple of his beloved wife Queen Nvartari.
13 – The phenomenon of the sun is still puzzling scientists in various areas, and becomes the mystery of the industrial phenomenon of astronomical miracle, which is celebrated by tourists and visitors to the Temple of Abu Simbel twice a year a big mystery.
Things to do in Aswan
Night in Aswan
Philae Temple Sound and light show
The show of sound and magic light takes you on a journey through the distant past to discover the myth of Isis and Osiris through dazzling lighting that takes the minds and attractive music with a voice that narrates and narrates as if it emanates from the depths of the deep past and brings you history and events as if you are living for the time being. To life which makes you feel that the temple is moving around you.
As if the legend sent again and you see the events again through the myth of Osiris the Lord of the Dead and his beloved wife Isis, who sent her husband to life again using the rituals of life after he was killed by his brother.
The name is derived from the ancient Egyptian word “black” meaning “remote place”, and the elephants of the history of the age of 4000 years.
A large number of temples were built on the island of Vila, perhaps the oldest of these temples dating back to the reign of King Thutmose III (1490-1436 BC).
In the fourth century BC, the king built a large temple, the Ptolemy Philae delph (3rd century BC) built by his great temple, followed by many Ptolemaic kings and Roman governors until the island of Philea was crowded with temples, The most famous is the so-called “Pharaoh’s cunning.”
Book Now: Sound and light show in Aswan
Nubian Village Aswan
Gharb Sohail Island in Aswan
The village of Sohail island is one of the most important tourist attractions in Aswan, providing daily life for the Nubians.
We organize Nubian village Aswan trip for 3 hours by felucca boat including the round trip from Hotel or Nile Cruise.
Nile Cruise From Aswan to Luxor
One of the most beautiful trips in Aswan is the Nile Cruise trip, the tour starts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week from Aswan to Luxor.
Tour starts in Aswan by 5 stars Nile cruise, include All services and excursions. Visit All sightseeing in Aswan and sail to Luxor, throw the trip will stop to visit Kom Ombo Temple, Edfu Temple and end the trip in Luxor for two days , visit Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, Valley of the Kings and Queens.
Book Now: Nile Cruise from Aswan to Luxor
Aswan weather
Warm in Winter, Aswan is always sunny.
Where the mild dry climate, the warm sun.
In Winter: Aswan is considered one of the most beautiful sights in Egypt and indeed the world at all.
More Trips
