Aswān

Granite quarries and the first cataract

Aswān is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Situated at latitude 24.09082 and longitude 32.89942, this population center of 379,774 inhabitants rests on the east bank of the Nile just north of the Aswan Dam at the first cataract. Spanning over 2,600 years of recorded history, the urban footprint includes the formerly separate community on the island of Elephantine. Official administrative functions operate within the Africa/Cairo timezone.

Landscape and the life-giving waters

The geography of the region is defined by the flowing waters of the Nile, which is nearly 650 meters wide above the city. From this southern frontier town, the river flows northward for more than 1,200 kilometers to the northern extremity of Egypt without encountering a barrier or cataract. Because ancient Egyptians oriented themselves toward the origin of these life-giving waters, Egypt was always conceived to open or begin at this location. The ancient landscape featured a peninsula on the right bank of the river, immediately below the first cataract that extended toward Philae.

Stone and terrain

The local terrain supplied granite and celebrated granitic rock called syenite to many ancient Egyptian monuments, including the pyramids, colossal statues, obelisks, and monolithic shrines. These local quarries are still operating today, bearing visible traces of ancient quarrymen who worked alongside domesticated draft animals. The city's geographic position made it a crucial garrison town, military station, and trade center where tolls and customs were levied on all boats passing southwards and northwards. Detailed geographic descriptions of the settlement appear in historical records from writers including Herodotus, Strabo, Stephanus of Byzantium, Ptolemy, Pliny the Elder, and Vitruvius, as well as on the Antonine Itinerary. Additional details regarding the settlement and its monuments are documented by GeoNames.