  Aswan
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 600 Aswan Tips.1584 Aswan Photos.0 Aswan Videos. Aswan Pages by Kuznetsov_Sergey
Tips 1 - 10 of 10 Aswan Things to Do
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Things To Do: Island of Elephantine
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The verdant island of Elephantine is the great island in Aswan. It has 1,500m long and 500m wide. In the northern part of the island there was an ancient city-fortress of Aswan. It is also famous with its luxuriant growth of palms, known in Arabic as Geziret Aswan or El-Gesira ("the Island").
It can be reached by boat (preferably a felucca) in a few minutes. It is one of Aswan's principal tourist attractions, and because it has quiet idyllic charm.
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Things To Do: Island of El-Atrun or Kitchener's Island
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Between Elephantine Island and the left bank of the Nile there is the island of El-Atrun or Kitchener's Island, more recently known as Botanical Island. Once the property of Lord Kitchener, it now belongs to the State, and with its luxuriant abundance of plants and flowers is one of the great attractions of Aswan.
More than 400 kinds of subtropical flora grow on the area about 6 hectares. The pride of the botanical garden - a collection of the palm trees, one of the best in the world. There are about 100 kinds on the island.
I advise to visit this island at extremely hot hours of a day. You will have a rest from excursion impressions in the garden cool. You may reach the island by felucca as well as we on our way to the Nubian village. I don’t know how much the ticket cost because we had a complex excursion, which included felucca trip, botanical garden and Nubian village ($20).
You may see my VIDEO-Clip from my personal YouTube channel: 4 min Egypt Aswan Botanical Island 2007
You may watch my Island of El-Atrun or Kitchener's Island high resolution photos on Google Earth in Aswan according to the following coordinates 24º 5' 43.03" N 32º 53' 19.28" E
or on my Google Earth Panoramio Kitchener's Island, Botanical Island .
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Things To Do: The west bank of the Nile at Aswan
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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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Things To Do: Nubia Museum
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The collection reflects the history and character of Nubia. Among other pieces the collection includes the statue of Ramses II, statute of Amenras, the head of the Shpatka, and the head of black granite of Tahraqa.
The building of the museum is constructed in traditions of Nubian architecture. As it stands on a slope of a rock, its western part is one-storeyed, and eastern part is two-storeyed. The wide ladder conducts downwards from a lobby. Visitors are met with a breadboard model of a valley of the Nile on which tiny copies of the most interesting architectural monuments of Nubia are placed.
The exposition is located by a historical principle. In essence, it is placed in the uniform hall divided into parts by partitions. Among exhibits sculptures and jewels, ceramics and frescos from walls of the flooded Christian temples, subjects of arts and crafts. In the right part of a hall - a breadboard model of the Nubian house with brightly painted facade, household stages with wax figures of inhabitants.
You may see my VIDEO-Clip from my personal YouTube channel: 4 min 20 sec Egypt Aswan Nubian Museum 2007
You may watch my Nubia Museum high resolution photos on Google Earth in Aswan according to the following coordinates 24º 4' 46.69" N 32º 53' 18.36" E
or on my Google Earth Panoramio Aswan Nubean Museum and Aswan Nubean Museum Inside.
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Things To Do: Unfinished obelisk
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In the Northern Quarries can be seen a well famous Unfinished Obelisk. It has about 42m long and 4m across at the broader end. It is considered it was abandoned because of a crack in the stone. It is estimated that the completed obelisk would have weighed 1,168 tons and would have been the largest ever hewn! Round the obelisk has been cut a trench 75cm wide.
On the surrounding rock faces, which are of moderate height, can be seen many traces of the work of ancient stonecutters. It is considered that the blocks were detached from the rock by boring holes along a prescribed line, driving wedges into these and then soaking the wedges with water to detach the block. Statues, sarcophagi, obelisks, etc., were usually roughly dressed before removal in order to reduce the weight for transport.
The Unfinished Obelisk was one of the main attractions for me in Egypt. I don’t believe it was built in ancient time. In my opinion it was made in modern time by modern technology.
You may watch my VIDEO-Clip from my personal YouTube channel: 4 min 35 sec Egypt Aswan Unfinished Obelisk 2007
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Directions: You may watch my Unfinished obelisk high resolution photo on Google Earth in Aswan according to the following coordinates 24º 4' 39.44" N 32º 53' 41.91" E
or on my Google Earth Panoramio Aswan Obelisk.
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Things To Do: Coptic Orthodox Cathedral
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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
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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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Things To Do: Old Dam
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The Old Aswan Dam was constructed in 1902 in 11 km from the city. Later the Dam was rebuilt twice. Its length is 2100 m. There were made 179 water-carrying apertures. In the left-bank part of the Dam there is a sluice for pass of boats. The small hydroelectric power station in the same place is constructed.
The Old Dam has allowed regulating a drain of the Nile, but it could not execute the main task - to protect Egypt from floodings and droughts. This task was solved by the High Dam which was built in 1960th 7 km south to it.
You may see my VIDEO-Clip from my personal YouTube channel: 2 min 50 sec Egypt Aswan Nile & Old Dam 2007
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Things To Do: High Dam
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The high-altitude Dam erected with the assistance of the Soviet experts. The international association of civil engineers has named it one of ten outstanding constructions of the XX century! Egyptians gave it a name of the pyramid of XX century.
The High Dam, or el-Sadd el-Ali is situated in 7km above the Old Aswan Dam. This is a massive accumulation of more then 40 billion m3. It consists of stones and sand with a clay core and a concrete facing. With a total length of 3.6km, it pounds the waters of the Nile, which was originally 500m wide at this point. It is 980m thick at the base, reducing to 40m at the top. It has 17 times the volume of the Pyramid of Cheops. The top of the dam is 111m above the base. It was built under the Soviet assistance in 1960th.
A four-lane road runs across the top of the dam. A memorial, a triumphal arch and an inscription commemorate the completion of this huge enterprise and the cooperation between Egypt and the Soviet Union in its realization. Experts consider that the Dam is practically eternal.
It is open for visitors from 9.00 till 14.00. Entrance fee is 2LE (40 cents). Video is forbidden on the Dam!
You may see my VIDEO-Clip from my personal YouTube channel: 3 min 48 sec Egypt Aswan High Dam and Monument 2007
You may watch my High Dam high resolution photo on Google Earth in Aswan according to the following coordinates 23º 58' 16.59" N 32º 52' 5.12" E
or on my Google Earth Panoramio Aswan High Dam , Aswan High Dam 2.
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Things To Do: Lake Nasser
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The damming of the Nile by the High Dam has created an immense reservoir, Lake Nasser, with an area of 5,250 square km one of the largest artificial lake in the world. The lake is 510km long (a third of this length being in Sudanese territory) and 5-35 km wide. The average altitude of the surface of the lake is about 182m above sea level.
The average capacity of the reservoir (Lake Nasser) formed by the Dam is some 135 billion m3, its maximum capacity 157 billion m3. Of this total quantity 84 billion m3 the average annual flow of the Nile are assigned to irrigation, Egypt receiving 5.5 billion m3 and Sudan 18.5 billion m3.
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Things To Do: Egyptian-Russian Friendship Monument
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The majestic monument of the Egyptian-Soviet friendship is erected on the left bank of the Nile, at the western basis of the High Dam. Five petals of a lotus have shot up on 75 m! The Monument was built under the project of architects of Omelchenko and Pavlov. Bas-reliefs were made by the sculptor Vechkanov.
On the central petal, inside of a lotus, words of the president of Egypt Nasser (1918-1970) were beaten out: "For long years of joint work the Arabian-Soviet friendship was shaped and has become so strong that now it is not conceding on the durability to the most high-altitude Aswan Dam".
At height of 46 m petals of a lotus are connected by a viewing platform. It was possible to rise there on the lift early. Now it was closed and I couldn't rise up the platform to admire a panorama around the Dam.
You may watch my Egyptian-Russian Friendship Monument high resolution photo on Google Earth in Giza according to the following coordinates 23º 58' 16.30" N 32º 52' 3.27" E
or on my Google Earth Panoramio Aswan Soviet-Egyptian Obelisk.
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Join a Discussion confused traveller
(5 replies, Thursday, Jul 17, 2008, 1:09 PM UTC) Russian Friendship monument at Aswan High Dam
(2 replies, Monday, Jul 7, 2008, 12:48 PM UTC) How do I book the bus from Hurghada to Aswan in advance
(3 replies, Friday, Jul 4, 2008, 1:09 PM UTC) Be the first to reply to these questions Video Camera information
(no replies yet, Sunday, Jan 6, 2008, 4:31 PM UTC) How to celebrate New Year's Eve in Aswan?
(no replies yet, Friday, Oct 12, 2007, 5:44 AM UTC) How to get to Nuba Nile Hotel from station
(no replies yet, Sunday, Aug 19, 2007, 9:06 PM UTC) » All Aswan Posts
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 Comments for Kuznetsov_Sergey about Aswan | | | | |
volopolo Thu Feb 21, 2008 13:05 UTC
Excellent web site like all the others! Great info, tips, pictures anything! Hope that i will see uou in VT Rank number one one day! volopolo | sayedaburas Sun Jan 13, 2008 06:38 UTC
I am glad enough to read all these lovely tips now and enjoy our lovely feed back (~_~) | tiabunna Fri Dec 28, 2007 13:10 UTC
Very enjoyable Sergey - those dams are most impressive, and I didn't know that Kitchener had an island there. Wonder if you'd mind emailing me why you think the "unfinished obelisk" is modern? | Trekki Sat Nov 24, 2007 06:01 UTC
Wow, Sergey, fantastic !!! I really cannot get enough of your videos as addendum to the atmosphere :-) My favourite here is the one in Nubian Museum - the music shoots me into the galaxies :-)) (it was me, since yesterday here) |
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on Oct 7, 2007
