 | Aswan Things To Do | Tips 11 - 20 of 291 |  |
Popular Things To Do | Other Things To Do Tips | All Tips (291) Egypt is known for its ancient wonders, and its links to the past. One of the most impressive contrasts of our trip was the Aswan High Dam, built in the 1960's.
It contains 18 times more material than the largest pyramid in Egypt, increased the cultivility of Egypt 30 percent, and dwarfs the original dam built in Aswan!
The result of this dam also is Lake Nasser, which has 500 miles of artifical lake property, making it the largest in the world.
This dam is also responsible for over half of Egypt's energy supply. Leave a Comment
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There are several tourist attractions on the west bank of the Nile opposite the south end of Elephantine. The ruined Monastery of St Simeon, situated on a hill in the desert on the west bank of the Nile. It can be reached from the riverbank on a footpath running up a desert valley opposite the south end of Elephantine. One of the largest and best preserved Coptic monasteries, it was founded in the seventh century and abandoned in the XIIIth because of water shortage.
The Mausoleum of the Aga Khan, built here, in accordance with his wishes, by the Begum, his French born wife.
The Villa Nur el-Salam, set in carefully tended gardens, which belonged to Aga Khan III is also situated there.
Unfortunately I couldn’t visit this part of Aswan because of time shortage. I could only admire by the buildings from the felucca and from the Botanical garden.
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Sharia as-Souq is the main market in town, and it is enjoyable to walk down this street in the evening.
But to be honest , I don't think that I would recommend buying anything in any of these tourist towns. Instead, I'd recommend saving one day for shopping in Cairo before you depart, and shopping at the Khan al-Khalili market there. (cheaper, better selection, and less hassles...) Leave a Comment
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The dam is located closed to Aswan.
It was built on the 60's for more than 35000 people. 3000 Soviet people came to help on this engineering miracle.
It contains 3 times more granite then in the Great Piramid. The Great Piramid, Keops, contains 2300000 stones from 2 to 100 Europeans tons.
It has 4 kilometers long and 111 meters high. The base measures 1 kilometer.
If the Dam braks for "ANY REASON" takes only 6 hours to flood the hold country. Leave a Comment
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The Dam in Aswan everybody speaks about today, is not the first one. Between 1898 and 1902 the British built a dam by Aswan, but it was realized shortly after, that it was not big enough to withstand the annual high waters of the Nile and that it would also not long fulfil the raising need for energy of the egyptians.
When the Worldbank denied Egypt a promised credit (on the pressure of the Americans), president Nasser began to let the people pay toll for the usage of the Suez Channel. This was one of the reasons for the Crisis around the Suez, then.
Finally the Sowjet Union offered Money and their Experts for the building of the Dam.
Between 1960 and 1971 they built the dam.
The structure is 980m at the basis and 420m on top. It is 111m high, almost 4km long
More than 35 000 people worked at the dam. It is not the biggest in the world, but very impressive anyway.
The pros for Egypt: they still have water if it is not raining in Ethiopia (where the Nile comes form). This has happened already. After the dam was finished, they had a drought during 10 years! If not for the dam, Egypt would be a whole desert now.
The area that can be cultivated has been augmented 30%.
Because the huge Nasser Lake evaporates so much water it is also raining in areas where it never rained before.
The Energy output of the country has been doubled.
But there are also negative sides:
The dam holds back the mud that the annual high waters brought, so there is no more natural fertilizing.
Instead of the mud that was provided by nature the people are forced to use artificial ones - and that salts up the ground.
The ground water rised and this endangers different temples, because the salt also raises into the stone and this kills it.
And because of the rising waters some temples have had to be replaced. Others are still there - now underwater.
The temple you see in the background is also one the relocated. Leave a Comment
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A little upstream of Aswan and on the west side of the Nile is a Nubian village, that you can visit.
The Nubians are the Egyptians with a darker skin. They came from farther south.
In the Pharaonic times Nubia was very precious because it was the source of Gold (the name Nub means gold).
When Aswan Dam was built many Nubians had to leave their old villages because of the raising water. They built new ones higher up. This is one of them.
The style is beautiful, more african than egyptian with its color and forms. They also often use ceramic that they insert into the walls as decoration.
Some Nubians here grow crocodiles that they later let free in the Nasser lake (not the Nile).
They also have an official school and a soccer place - sponsored by the state.
Be prepared when coming here for the many children that would like to have sweets and bakshish and such from you. They are quite cute and - worse- they know it! Leave a Comment
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Philae Temple was dismantled and reassembled because of, again, the High Dam.
The temple is dedicated to the goddess Isis.
I visited the temple at night by boat from Aswan. We did the Sound and Light Show, I did not like the show but I did the temple.
Do no get the Show, you will miss the temple. Leave a Comment
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This 48 meters obelisk was left here because of a vein (crack) in the granite.
Obleisk were made for carring descriptions of the Egypcian hystory. The weigh of this stone is so heavy than even today is so difficult, read impossible, to transport.
Another mistery... Leave a Comment
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To many who venture into this southernmost city in Egypt, the highlight of their visit is the very early morning (as in 4 am) convoy ride to Abu Simbel for Ramses II's Great Temple. Actually, I have mixed emotions whether it was really worth the eight-hour ride, the excessively high entrance fee (at EGP 80 the steepest fee for all Egyptian monuments) and the ungodly hours by which one has to wake up and join a convoy of tourist buses accompanied by a phalanx of heavily-armed Egyptian military men.
No doubt the temple's giant colossi of Ramses II are impressive - in size, that is. But in terms of technology and skill level, they were far less extraordinary compared to the Great Pyramids, for example (according to the Norwegian archeologist who was with our tour group). While the pyramids of Giza required each stone be cut with precision and hauled over great heights, Ramses II's temple required the most "rudimentary" technique in stone cutting and carving - and this was during the New Kingdom, thousands years after the Giza pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom. One would expect technology and know-how in monument building would have evolved to more advanced stages. But not in this case.
Beside the imposing temple is the smaller Temple of Hathor, built to honor Ramses II's wife, Nefertari, reputed to be the most beautiful of the pharaohs' wives. Interestingly, Nefertari's colossi are equal to those of Ramses II - a departure from the traditional style depicting consorts' statues at the pharaoh's knees - a sign of the great pharaoh's love and devotion to Nefertari whose elaborately-adorned tomb at Luxor is said to match her legenday beauty.
For practicalities in visiting Abu Simbel, click this general tip (not enough space here). Leave a Comment
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Archangel Michael's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Aswan is quite a modern building. It was consecrated in 2006. We know that the coptic churches maintained the tradition of being built in the same shapes as older churches yet it is noticeable that moder Coptic churches are in general bigger than older ones.
Coptic churches have paralleled those in Orthodoxy, such as the emergence of a solid iconostasis to separate the sanctuary, and the West, such as the movement over the centuries of the place of baptism from the narthex or outer porch into the rear of the nave. However the existence of three altars in the sanctuary, sometimes in separate apses, is typically and distinctively Coptic.
You may watch my VIDEO-Clip from my personal YouTube channel: 3 min 21 sec Egypt Aswan Coptic Temple 2007 Directions: You may watch my Coptic Orthodox Cathedral high resolution photo on Google Earth in Aswan 24º 4' 58.99" N 32º 53' 23.84" E or on my Google Earth Panoramio Aswan Coptic Temple.
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