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Aswan


	Nubian Museum Aswan Cultural Centre Botanical Island Elephantine Island		Agha Khan Mausoleum The Monastery of St. Simeon The Unfinished Obelisk The Tombs of the Nobles

Aswan, Egypt's sunniest southern city and ancient frontier town, has a distinctively African atmosphere. 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 fresh Nile fishes.
Here, 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 sour, full of the scent and colour of spices, perfumes, scarves and baskets; view the spectacular sunsets while having tea on the terrace of your hotel. Aswan has been a favorite winter resort since the beginning of the nineteenth century and it is still a perfect place to leave everything else behind.

Nubian Museum
	The idea of setting up the museum in Aswan has been the outcome of the international Campaign for Saving Nubia Monuments, supported by UNESCO. It houses 3000 rescued antiquities representing different periods: Prehistoric, Pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Coptic and Islamic.

Aswan Cultural Centre
	Every night Nubian dancers and musicians perform in the Cultural Centre, near the Corniche. Falklore troupes recreate scenes from village life and perform the famous Nubian mock stick-fight dances.

Botanical Island
	Almost the whole island is a botanical garden filled with exotic plants and trees imported from all over the world. The perfect place to spend a lazy afternoon in the shade.

Elephantine Island
	The ancient stronghold of Elephantine Island separates the Nile into two channels opposite Aswan. Walk through Nubian villages to the small museum, set in shady gardens. Nearby is a Nilometer, settled by ancient Egyptians who believed it to be near the source of the Nile. The ruins of the many temples that had been here can still be seen, including the Temple of Khnum, originally erected during the Old Kingdom, a Greco-Roman necropolis and the Temple of Satet, built by Queen Hatshepsut.

Agha Khan Mausoleum
	Take a felucca to see Mausoleum from outside, at the top of a hill at the West Bank. Agha Khan spent every winter in Aswan and was buried in this magnificent Mausoleum, Styled after the Fatimid tombs. The interior shrine of the Mausoleum is made of marble. Where his wife, Begum Um-Habiba, was recently buried next to him.

The Monastery of St. Simeon
	Originally founded in the 7th century. Rebuilt in the 10th century, the monastery was a refuge for missionary monks who converted the Nubians to Christianity. Frescoes of the Preachers still remain in the roofless Basilica.

The Unfinished Obelisk
	The Unfinished Obelisk still lies where a crack was discovered as it was being hewn from the rock. Possibly intended as a companion to the Lateran Obelisk, originally at Karnak, now in Rome. It is a concrete example of how the ancient Egyptians went about fashioning these graceful monuments. Nearby is the Fatimid Cemetery which houses hundreds of mud-brick tombs dating back to the 9th century.

The Tombs of the Nobles
	The northern hills of the West Bank abound in rock-hewn tombs of princes dating from the Old Kingdom to the Roman period; at night they are illuminated with spotlights and can be clearly seen from the East Bank of the Nile. Inside, the tombs are decorated with vivid murals depicting scenes of everyday life, hieroglyphic biographies and inscriptions showing the noblemen journeys into Africa.