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32-718: The Kerma Basin is a fertile low-lying area just below the Third Cataract of the Nile in Northern State , Sudan. Extending over a distance of about 60 km it is a flood plain in the Dongola Reach creating the largest section of arable land between Aswan and the Fourth Cataract of the Nile. At maximum extent some 70,000 acres (283 km) can be inundated by the annual Nile flood, but

64-466: A November 2021 rain and hail storm, flash flooding can drive scorpions from their lairs to deadly effects. 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 low seasonal variation and almost 4,000 hours of annual sunshine – very close to

96-650: A more regular year sees only about half that. This has led to a high population density in history that has long made the Kerma Basin one of the central portions of Nubia . The ancient city of Kerma was in the basin. During that period the Nile ran in channels spaced across the basin floor, increasing the amount of arable land and promoting the emergence of developed societies like the Kingdom of Kerma . 19°36′0″N 30°24′0″E  /  19.60000°N 30.40000°E  / 19.60000; 30.40000 Cataracts of

128-524: A precise description of the Cataract-Nile: It has a similar shape to a backwards letter N. It flows northward from Meroë about 2700 stadia, then turns back to the south and the winter sunset for about 3700 stadia, and it almost reaches the same parallel as the Meroë region and makes its way far into Libya. Then it makes another turn, and flows northward 5300 stadia to the great cataract, curving slightly to

160-462: Is dry. Winters are brief and pleasantly mild, though nights may be cool at times. 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 does not occur every year; in early 2001, the last rain in Aswan had been seven years earlier. When heavy precipitation does occur, as in

192-741: Is mentioned by numerous ancient writers, including Herodotus , Strabo , Stephanus of Byzantium , Ptolemy , Pliny the Elder , Vitruvius , and it appears on the Antonine Itinerary . It may also be mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Isaiah . 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. In April 2018,

224-677: The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of the head of the bust of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius at the Temple of Kom Ombo during work to protect the site from groundwater. 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

256-933: 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. Aswan joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2017. Aswan was formerly spelled Assuan or Assouan. Names in other languages include ( Arabic : أسوان , romanized :  ʾAswān ; Ancient Egyptian : Swenett ; Coptic : Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ , romanized:  Souan ; Ancient Greek : Συήνη , romanized :  Suēnē ; proposed Biblical Hebrew : סְוֵנֵה Sǝwēnê ). The Nubians also call

288-576: The Ptolemaic Dynasty . 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

320-565: The Kushite invasion, for most of Egyptian history, the Nile's cataracts, particularly the First Cataract, primarily served as a natural border to prevent most crossings from the south, as those in said region would rely on river travel to venture north and south. This allowed Egypt's southern border to be relatively protected from invasions, and besides brief Kushite rule, it remained a natural border for most of Egyptian history. Eratosthenes gave

352-563: The Nile The Cataracts of the Nile are shallow lengths (or whitewater rapids ) of the Nile river, between Khartoum and Aswan , where the surface of the water is broken by many small boulders and stones jutting out of the river bed, as well as many rocky islets . In some places, these stretches are punctuated by whitewater, while at others the water flow is smoother but still shallow. Counted going upstream (from north to south): In Egypt : In Sudan : Geologists indicate that

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384-571: The Romans during their occupation of Ancient Egypt because of the similar association of their goddesses with childbirth, and of which the import is "the opener". The ancient name of the city also is said to be derived from the Egyptian symbol for "trade", or "market". Because the Ancient Egyptians oriented themselves toward the origin of the life-giving waters of the Nile in the south, and as Swenett

416-444: The ancient geographers and mathematicians. 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. They noted that the sun's disc was reflected in a deep well (or pit) at noon. This statement is only approximately correct; at the summer solstice, the shadow was only 1 ⁄ 400 of the staff, and so could scarcely be discerned, and

448-399: The area between the first and second cataracts (known as Lower Nubia ), and its monuments moved as part of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia . 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

480-455: The bedrock was previously eroded to be several thousand feet deep. This created a vast canyon that is now filled with sediment. Despite these characteristics, some of the cataracts which are normally impassable by boat because of the shallow water have become navigable during the flood season. The word "cataract" comes from the Greek word καταρρέω ("to flow down"), although the original Greek term

512-515: The city Dib which means " fortress, palace " and is derived from the Old Nubian name ⲇⲡ̅ⲡⲓ. Aswan is the ancient city of Swenett , later known as Syene , which in antiquity was the frontier town of Ancient Egypt facing the south. Swenett is supposed to have derived its name from an Egyptian goddess with the same name. This goddess later was identified as Eileithyia by the Greeks and Lucina by

544-418: 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. Northern Tropic boundary The latitude of the city that would become Aswan – located at 24° 5′ 23″ – was an object of great interest to

576-525: The earliest depiction of the White Crown with an estimated dating range between 3200BC and 3100BC. 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 ,

608-582: The east; then 1200 stadia to the smaller cataract at Syene (i.e. Aswan ), and then 5300 more to the sea. The six cataracts of the Nile are depicted extensively by European visitors, notably by Winston Churchill in The River War (1899), where he recounts the exploits of the British trying to return to the Sudan between 1896 and 1898 , after they were forced to leave in 1885 . Today, Lake Nasser has filled most of

640-399: The granitic rock called syenite . They furnished the colossal statues, obelisks , and monolithic shrines that are found throughout Egypt, including the pyramids ; and the traces of the quarrymen who worked (alongside domesticated draft animals) in these 3,000 years ago are still visible in the native rock. They lie on either bank of the Nile , and a road, 6.5 km (4.0 mi) in length,

672-716: 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 . The city's Nubian Museum is an important archaeological center, containing finds from

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704-535: 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. 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

736-432: The mummies, artifacts including painted funerary masks, vases of bitumen used in mummification, pottery and wooden figurines were revealed. Thanks to the hieroglyphs on the tomb, it was detected that the tomb belongs to a tradesman named Tjit. 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

768-501: The northern limb of the Sun's disc would be nearly vertical. More than 2200 years ago, Greek polymath Eratosthenes used this information to calculate Earth's circumference . Aswan has a hot desert climate ( Köppen climate classification BWh ) like the rest of Egypt. Aswan and Luxor have the hottest summer days of any city in Egypt . Aswan is one of the hottest, sunniest and driest cities in

800-415: The region of northern Sudan is tectonically active and this activity has caused the river to take on "youthful" characteristics. The Nubian Swell has diverted the river's course to the west, while keeping its depth shallow and causing the formation of the cataracts. Even as the river bed is worn down by erosion , the landmass is lifted, keeping parts of the river bed exposed. These distinctive features of

832-466: The river between Aswan and Khartoum have led to the stretch being often referred to as the Cataract Nile , while the downstream portion is occasionally referred to as the "Egyptian" Nile. The geological distinction between these two portions of the river is considerable. North of Aswan, the river bed is not rocky, but is instead composed of sediment, and far from being a shallow river. It is believed that

864-461: 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". Stan Hendrick, John Coleman Darnell and Maria Gatto in 2012 excavated petroglyphic engravings from Nag el-Hamdulab in Aswan which featured representations of a boat procession, solar symbolism and

896-471: The world. Average high temperatures are consistently above 40 °C (104.0 °F) during summer (June, July, August and also September) while average low temperatures remain above 25 °C (77.0 °F). Average high temperatures remain above 23 °C (73.4 °F) during the coldest month of the year while average low temperatures remain above 8 °C (46.4 °F). Summers are very prolonged and extremely hot with blazing sunshine although desert heat

928-457: Was cut beside them from Syene to Philae . 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 . The city

960-560: Was established in 1975. The city is crossed by the Cape to Cairo Road , which connects it to Luxor and Cairo to the north, and Abu Simbel and Wadi Halfa to the south. Also important is the Aswan- Berenice highway, which connects with the ports of the Red Sea . Aswan is linked to Cairo by the Cape to Cairo Railway , which also connects it with Wadi Halfa. The railway is incomplete towards

992-527: Was the plural-only Κατάδουποι . However, contrary to this, none of the Nile 's six primary cataracts could be accurately described as waterfalls, and given a broader definition, this is the same with many of the minor cataracts. In ancient times, Upper Egypt extended from south of the Nile Delta to the first cataract, while further upstream, the land was controlled by the ancient Kingdom of Kush that would later take over Egypt from 760 to 656 BC. Besides

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1024-478: Was the southernmost town in the country, Egypt always was conceived to "open" or begin at Swenett. The city stood upon a peninsula on the right (east) bank of the Nile , immediately below (and north of) the first cataract of the flowing waters, which extended to it from Philae . Navigation to the delta was possible from this location without encountering a barrier. The stone quarries of ancient Egypt located here were celebrated for their stone, and especially for

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