Shellal

Coordinates: 24°03′00″N 32°53′00″E / 24.05000°N 32.88333°E / 24.05000; 32.88333
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"The river Nile at Shellal, photograph taken in the late afternoon on the 15th of February 1891." Photo: Queen Victoria of Sweden. Egypt, 1891.

Shellal (

Egyptian Empire and the Roman Empire. During the period of ancient Egypt, it was a very important quarry area for granite production. A canal was excavated in the vicinity of Shellal under Merenre Nemtyemsaf I during the Old Kingdom period in order to facilitate the navigation of the first-cataract of the Nile.[1] This canal was restored under Senusret III in the Middle Kingdom period
Nowadays it is possible to see some unfinished granite works on the site (that is soon to become an open-air museum); some of the objects on display include incomplete statues of
Roman baths
.

Shellal was mentioned in a text dating from the 6th century AD where the king of Nobatia prides himself on having driven Blemmyes out from his country northwards from Ibrim to Shellal, on the frontier with Roman Egypt.

It was also an important city during the

Arabia, rather that the domination of the powers of Lower Egypt
.

Transport

During the 19th century, the

First Cataract. Later the final southern station in the Egyptian railroad network was converted to standard gauge.[2]

In the late 19th century, Victoria of Baden, Queen Victoria of Sweden, visited Egypt and traveled south to Shellal where she took a now famous photograph of the site on the late afternoon of 15 February 1891. The photograph is the first known graphic document in existence, depicting the waters of the Nile at Shellal.

Today Shellal has a small port where boats depart to the near

Philae temple
and has a small market where the shopkeepers wait for the tourists returning from the temple.

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-631-19396-8
    .
  2. ^ "RAILWAYS IN THE NILE VALLEY". mikes.railhistory.railfan.net.

24°03′00″N 32°53′00″E / 24.05000°N 32.88333°E / 24.05000; 32.88333


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