Aswan

Aswan (

Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city has expanded and includes the formerly separate community on the island of Elephantine.

Aswan includes five monuments within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae; these are the Old and Middle Kingdom tombs of Qubbet el-Hawa, the town of Elephantine, the stone quarries and Unfinished Obelisk, the Monastery of St. Simeon and the Fatimid Cemetery.^[6] The city's Nubian Museum is an important archaeological center, containing finds from the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia before the Aswan Dam flooded all of Lower Nubia.

The city is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the category of craft and folk art.^[7] Aswan joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2017.

Other spellings and variations

Aswan was formerly spelled Assuan or Assouan. Names in other languages include (

History

swnt[9] in hieroglyphs
Late Period (664–332 BC)

Aswan is the ancient city of Swenett, later known as Syene, which in antiquity was the frontier town of

Swenett was equally important as a military station and for its position on a trade route. Under every dynasty it was a garrison town; and here tolls and customs were levied on all boats passing southwards and northwards. Around 330, the legion stationed here received a bishop from Alexandria; this later became the Coptic Diocese of Syene.^[13] The city is mentioned by numerous ancient writers, including Herodotus,^[14] Strabo,^[15] Stephanus of Byzantium,^[16] Ptolemy,^[17] Pliny the Elder,^[18] Vitruvius,^[19] and it appears on the Antonine Itinerary.^[20] It may also be mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Isaiah.^[21]

The Nile is nearly 650 m (0.40 mi) wide above Aswan. From this frontier town to the northern extremity of Egypt, the river flows for more than 1,200 km (750 mi) without bar or cataract. The voyage from Aswan to Alexandria usually took 21 to 28 days in favorable weather.

Archaeological findings

In April 2018, the

In September 2018, the Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enany announced that a sandstone sphinx statue had been discovered at the temple of Kom Ombo. The statue, measuring approximately 28 cm (11 in) in width and 38 cm (15 in)) in height, probably dates to the Ptolemaic Dynasty.^[25][26][27]

Archaeologists discovered 35 mummified remains of Egyptians in a tomb in Aswan in 2019. Italian archaeologist Patrizia Piacentini and El-Enany both reported that the tomb, where the remains of ancient men, women and children were found, dates back to the Greco-Roman period between 332 BC and 395 AD. While the findings assumed belonging to a mother and a child were well preserved, others had suffered major destruction. Other than the mummies, artifacts including painted funerary masks, vases of bitumen used in mummification, pottery and wooden figurines were revealed. Thanks to the hieroglyphics on the tomb, it was detected that the tomb belongs to a tradesman named Tjit.^[28][29][30]

Piacentini commented "It's a very important discovery because we have added something to the history of Aswan that was missing. We knew about tombs and necropoli dating back to the second and third millennium, but we didn't know where the people who lived in the last part of the Pharaonic era were. Aswan, on the southern border of Egypt, was also a very important trading city".^[28][29][30]

Stan Hendrick,

In February 2021, archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced significant discoveries at an archaeological site called Shiha Fort in Aswan, namely a Ptolemaic period temple, a Roman fort, an early Coptic church and an inscription in hieratic script. According to Mostafa Waziri, the crumbling temple was decorated with palm leaf carvings and an incomplete sandstone panel that described a Roman emperor. Researcher Abdel Badie states more generally that the church contained ovens used to bake pottery, four rooms, a long hall, stairs, and stone tiles.^[32][33]

Geography

Northern Tropic boundary

The latitude of the city that would become Aswan – located at 24° 5′ 23″ – was an object of great interest to the ancient geographers and mathematicians.^[34] They believed that it was seated immediately under the tropic, and that on the day of the summer solstice, a vertically positioned staff cast no shadow.^[34] They noted that the sun's disc was reflected in a deep well (or pit) at noon.^[34] This statement is only approximately correct;^[34] at the summer solstice, the shadow was only 1⁄400 of the staff, and so could scarcely be discerned, and the northern limb of the Sun's disc would be nearly vertical.^{[citation needed]} More than 2200 years ago, Greek polymath Eratosthenes used this information to calculate Earth's circumference.^[34]

Climate

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Aswan has a

The climate of Aswan is extremely dry year-round, with less than 1 mm (0.04 in) of average annual precipitation. The desert city is one of the driest ones in the world, and rainfall doesn't occur every year, as of early 2001, the last rain there was seven years earlier. When heavy precipitation does occur, as in a November 2021 rain and hail storm, flash flooding can drive scorpions from their lairs to deadly effects.^[35] Aswan is one of the least humid cities on the planet, with an average relative humidity of only 26%, with a maximum mean of 42% during winter and a minimum mean of 16% during summer.

The weather of Aswan is extremely clear, bright and sunny year-round, in all seasons, with a low seasonal variation, with almost 4,000 hours of annual sunshine, very close to the maximum theoretical sunshine duration. Aswan is one of the sunniest places on Earth.

The highest record temperature was 51 °C (124 °F) on July 4, 1918, and the lowest record temperature was −2.4 °C (27.7 °F) on January 6, 1989.^[36]

Education

In 2012, the Aswan University was inaugurated, which is headquartered in the city. Aswan is also home to the Aswan Higher Institute of Social Work, which was established in 1975.

Transport

The city is crossed by the

Aswan is linked to Cairo by the Cape to Cairo Railway, which also connects it with Wadi Halfa. The railway is incomplete towards the south.

Other key transport infrastructures are the Port of Aswan, the largest river port in the region, and Aswan International Airport.

International relations

Twin towns/Sister cities

Aswan is twinned with:

• Sonoma, California, United States ^{[citation needed]}

Gallery

• 
  Archangel Michael's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, built in the Coptic style
• 
  El-Tabia Mosque in Aswan
• 
  The Lotus-Tower near Aswan, monument to Arab-Soviet Friendship. Near Aswan High Dam.
• 
  Nubia Museum entrance
• 
  Fatimid Cemetery
• 
  Unfinished Obelisk in Aswan
• 
  A street parallel to Corniche in Aswan
• 
  Aswan Bridge
• 
  Aswan Botanical Garden
• 
  Aswan souq
• 
  Market in Aswan
• 
  Aswan station
• 
  Gharb Seheil
• 
  Nubian village in Elephantine Island
• 
  Qubbet el-Hawa
• 
  River Nile in Aswan
• 
  Feluccas in Aswan

See also

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Aswan". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to أسوان.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Aswan.

• Ancient Aswan City