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Nubian Houses
Nubian Houses
Nubian Houses
Your hosts, will be pleased to make you welcome. They serve drinks and
meals, provide basic accommodation, and will arrange sightseeing or
relaxing trips if you should wish.
From their beach you can take a felucca boat trip along the Nile to Edfu or
cross over to the Tombs of the Nobles on the west bank then walk or go by
camel to St. Simoen Monastery and the Agha Khan's Mausoleum. If you
wish your boatman will wait to take you upstream to the First Cataracts and
onto Kitchener's Island to enjoy the lush botanical gardens. Or you may
prefer to while away some hours watching the feluccas glide by and
spotting birds on the river while sipping a cup of sweet tea or strong ginger
coffee on the terrace.
Accommodation
The house is clean and completely furnished, with a living room, a kitchen,
three bedrooms, a bathroom, a toilet and warm and cold running water. And
who doesn’t want to experience living in an African village just once in his
life? Here is your chance! You’ll have a completely different holiday: the
village people accept you as one of them; a local from West-Aswan instead
of a tourist. You do your own shopping in the village, cook by yourself if
you like. Time is yours to discover Nubia all by yourself.
Women
The Nubian House is a safe and comfortable place for women travelers,
where they will be treated with respect. Please respect local customs and
dress modestly, covering your body from shoulders to knees.
Bird Watching
Elephantine offers exceptional bird spotting. From the terrace of the Nubian
House, you may watch Green Heron among many other breeding and
migratory water birds such as the Egyptian Goose. Black Kite circle
overhead, having made the tower of the Oberoi Hotel a regular perch.
Amongst them, you may also spot a Lappet-faced or an Egyptian Vulture.
Elephantine Island
has wonderful gardens and is a good place to spend some leisure time
wandering through the Nubian village where the people are friendly and the
houses are often very colorful. The houses often have paintings or carved
with a crocodile at the bottom, a fish in the middle and a man on top, with a
woman's hand made of brass as a door knocker between the fish and man.
Elephantine is Greek for elephant. The town has also been referenced as
Kom, after it's principle god of the island, Khnum (Khnemu). It is believed
that the island received it's name because it was a major ivory trading
centre, though in fact it was a major trading post of many commodities.
There are large boulders in the river near the island which resembled
bathing elephants, and this too has been suggested as a reason for the
island's name.
The island is very beautiful, and there is a considerable amount to see. One
of the main attractions is a Nilometer which was used to measure the water
level of the Nile as late as the nineteenth century. There has been an
ongoing excavation at the town for many years by the German
Archaeological Institute and some of the finds along with many other island
artefact, including a mummified ram of Khnum, are located in the
Elephantine Museum. Another major attraction is the ruins of the Temple
of Khnum. Elephantine Island was considered to be home of this important
Egyptian god, and while this structure dates back to the Queen Hatshepsut
of the 18th Dynasty, there are references to a Temple of Khnum on the
island as early as the 3rd Dynasty. There are also ruins of a Temple of
Satet, who was Khnum's female counterpart (the three local deities were
foremost Khnum, but also Satet and a local Nubian goddess Anqet. These
gods were worshipped here since the earliest dynasties), also build by
Queen Hatshepsut, a shrine to Hekayib from the 6th Dynasty, a local
governor who was deified after his death. His cult flourished during the
middle kingdom, and some fine statues from the shrine are now in the
museum. You will also find a 3rd Dynasty granite step pyramid which is
now just visible, and to the north, the mud-brick vaults of the late period
which housed the bodies of the royal rams. On the south end of the island is
a small one room Ptolemaic temple which was constructed from materials
removed from the Kalabsha Temple
The Unfinished Obelisk:
It lies at the east south of the old cemetery in Aswan, and its height is 41.75
metres, and its weight is 1168 tons. since the ancient times the most
important source of granite needed by the ancients to build up their temples,
obelisk, their coffins, statues, pyramids and the like should go to Aswan as
the land of Granites.
Nobles' Tombs:
They are engraved in the rocks of the west mountain in front of the north of
Aswan. They date back to the Old and Middle Kingdom. They were
discovered in 1885 and the most important of which are: Mekho, Sapti,
Khons, and Harkhok Historians discovered on the walls of these tombs
inscriptions and writing through which they followed up the role played by
those nobles to protect the country, or the adventures they made to find out
the source of the Nile.
Philae Temple:
The Philae island is at a distance of 3 km. at the south of Aswan Dam, and
it comprises a group of religious temples and buildings of various eras; they
are: Nkhtenbo Temple, west Arches, East Arches Arsniofis Temple,
Emhotop Temple, Isis Great Temple, Churches, Hathor Temple, and Keshk
Tragan or Bed of pharaoh. After the set up of the High Dam, the water
overswept the island, and because of the significance of its temples,
UNESCO in cooperation with Egypt rescued the temple and moved them to
a next island called "Egilco"; which is a rock island at a height of 30 metres
above the sea level. The project began in 1973 and ended in 1980 and the
tourists can enjoy the show of the Sound and Light program with different
languages supported.
KALABSHA TEMPLE:
Its construction goes back to the reign of the Roman Emperor "Octavius
August" (39 b.c -14 b.c). It was moved from its first place on the west bank
of the Nile, at a distance of 57km at the south of Aswan, and rebuilt near
the west of the High Dam in 1963. It is one of the biggest and most
beautiful Nubian temples next to Abou Simbel Temple and most perfect
one with respect to the architectural elements of the ancient Egyptian
temples. It is built of sand rocks and on its walls there are important
inscriptions and writing representing the Egyptian deities, such as ISIS,
OSORIS, AMON ... etc. This temple was for the worship of Nubian God
"Menolis", yet there were private worship for Amon, Raa, khanoum, and
Betah.
EDFU TEMPLE:
It lies in Edfu city at a distance of 123 km from the north of Aswan city,
and overlooks the west bank of the Nile. It dates back to the ptolomic era
and was specialized for the worship of God "Horus" It is one of the most
magnificent Egyptian temples, distinguished by the greatness of
construction and is a wonderful example of the Egyptian Temples in
keeping its general appearance.
Its construction began at the end of 237 b.c. during the reign of Ptolmy 111
but the dissension, and bloody revolutions in Upper Egypt then, hindered
the completion of work, till it ended in 42 b.c. after the passage of 180
years.
On its walls there are inscriptions portraying the religion of the ancient
Egyptians and many details about their religious rituals and feasts.
Aswan Dam:
Its construction had begun before High Dam in 1898 and ended in 1902. It
was elevated for the first time in 1912, where the storage level of water was
113 metres, then for the second time in 1930 as to store 5 billion cubic
metres and includes 180 openings with gates and 40 closed ones to
complete its construction.
High Dam:
"Egypt is the Gift of the Nile" said Herodetus the ancient Greek historian.
This has been established fact over the ages, defying the changes of history.
The eternal River Nile has ever been the source of this gift. It can bestow
goodness here and there, when it floods in one year, while in another year
nothing but drought and privation may prevail. The High Dam will ever be
a Symbol of the struggle of the folks to construct a grand structure for their
present needs and future generations. The High Dam is a structure that
provides numerous benefits paving the way towards the dignity growth and
prosperity of Egypt. The High Dam has been considered the core of all
production projects in Egypt. It is one of architectural engineering miracles
of the twentieth century and is one of the biggest dams in the world. With
respect to its economic advantages the High Dam considered unique among
all the big irrigation projects in the world is unsurpassed in terms of its
return. Soon after the 1952 Revolution, the idea of constructing a High
Dam in Aswan for high-level storage was brought up. Such a Dam would
guarantee supplying Egypt with the required annual discharges for
agricultural expansion and protecting the country from the peril of high
floods.
BIGNONIACEAE VERBENACEAE
MELIACEAE SALCACEAE
TAMARACEAE ANNONACEAE
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MAGNALEACEAE OLEACEAE
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COMBRETACEAE
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RHANNACEAE BORAGINACEA
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CARICOCASE RUTACEAE
STERCULIACEAE APOCONACEAE
ANACORDIACE
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MORACEAE PALMACEAE
EYCTAGENACE
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