Aswan
| Aswan in hieroglyphics | |||||||
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Sunu / Swenu Swnw Sunu, Swenu |
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| Greek | Συήνη Syène | ||||||
| Coptic | Swan | ||||||
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Aswan ( Arabic أسوان Aswān , Eswan ; Coptic ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ Swān ) is an Egyptian city ( 106 meters above sea level ) on the eastern bank of the Nile below the first cataract . It is the capital of the Aswan Governorate named after itand with over 281,000 inhabitants (calculation: 2010)the fourth largest city in Upper Egypt after Luxor , Asyut and Fayyum . Aswan is the southernmost city of Egypt, the administrative area of the governorate extends beyond Abu Simbel to the border of Sudan .
The name of the city goes back to the ancient Egyptian Swnw (Sunu; Swenu) , which means "trade". In the Ptolemaic epoch it became the ancient Greek name Συήνη (Syène) , under the Roman rule the Latin Syene or Siene . The city name in the form of the Arabic Aswān has been preserved to this day via the derived Coptic Swān .
geography
Geographical location
 
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Location in Egypt |
Aswan is located on the southeast side of a bend in the river Nile, about 13 kilometers north of the 5250 km² large Lake Nasser . The lake was created as a result of the damming of the Nile water by the Aswan High Dam, named after the city . The old Aswan dam is located six kilometers southwest of the city center between the high dam and the urban area . From this to Aswan, the Nile flows around some islands, the northernmost of which, Elephantine and Kitchener Island , now belong to the city. The urban area east of the Nile extends from north to south with an east-west extension of 2.5 kilometers over a length of 5 kilometers along the river. The Arabian Desert joins in the east and the Libyan Desert to the west of the Nile . Agriculturally usable areas are located near Aswan exclusively north of the city on narrow strips on both sides of the river.
The city of Aswan owes its importance to its location below the first cataract of the Nile. From here the river was navigable towards Lower Egypt . The cataracts, the rapids divided by blocks and rock bars , hindered the onward journey south, so that Aswan became an important transshipment and trading center as a port of call for trade caravans from Nubia . Due to the construction of the dams, the rapids no longer exist in their original appearance. In the meantime Aswan has turned into a city of administration and tourism , even if trade still plays a role and granite and ore mining, the chemical industry with predominantly processing of nitrogen salts (fertilizers) and the high dam offer jobs. The administrative area of the Aswan Governorate stretches along the Nile 120 kilometers to the north to behind Edfu and about 270 kilometers to the southwest on both sides of Lake Nasser to the Sudanese border.
Assuan is end point of the line of Qina , which Luxor , Esna , Edfu and Kom Ombo runs. The Aswan high dam is connected to the rail network. The main train station is about 400 meters from the Nile in the northern part of the city near the market ( souk ). In addition to the roads along the Nile to the north, there are other, partly unpaved road connections on both sides of Lake Nasser and towards the Red Sea, 225 kilometers away . The city's airport , Aswan International , is six kilometers west of the Aswan High Dam in the Libyan desert. However, the Nile remains an important traffic artery for Aswan, on which the river cruise ships from Luxor, important for tourism, operate and freight traffic to Lower Egypt is handled. The landing stages of the cruise ships operating on the Nile are located within the city along the entire eastern bank of the Nile.
Cityscape
On the eastern bank of the Nile, across from Elephantine Island, runs the Corniche el-Nil , a promenade with tourist restaurants and the landing stages for cruise and excursion ships. At the southern end of the Uferstrasse is the Old Cataract Hotel , built in 1902 and used by Agatha Christie as a novel setting. The business center and the tourist pedestrian zone of Aswan are in the parallel streets east of the Corniche. The city extends south through new apartment blocks that expand into satellite settlements in the desert hills to the southeast.
Of the medieval Arab old town in the eastern part of the city center, only minor remains of buildings in poor condition can be seen. To the east, an informal settlement with narrow traffic routes, some of which are not passable, conquers the hills. On the island of Elephantine , traditional irrigation agriculture is practiced on small plots of land under shady trees. The settlement there called a “traditional Nubian village” wants to use a cliché and has nothing to do with such a cliché.
climate
Rain is very rare in Aswan and can be absent for decades. The average annual rainfall is only about one millimeter and falls mainly in May , as in ancient Egypt .
A short time later, the rainy season begins in Ethiopia , which causes the Nile to swell from the beginning of June; in August the Nile reaches its peak and the Aswan Reservoir is refilled. With the falling rainfall in Ethiopia in mid-September, the Nile will return to its normal level from the end of October. The water level of the Nile was measured in ancient times with nilometers , as can be seen near the Khnum temple on Elephantine. Since the dam was built, both the Nile floods and the fertile Nile mud that were previously transported and necessary for agriculture have been absent downstream .
The average maximum temperatures of 34 degrees Celsius are reached in July, but temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius can also be reached in isolated cases. The annual average temperature is around 26 degrees Celsius. However, the climate is pleasantly bearable due to the dry heat.
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Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Aswan
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history
The history of Aswan goes back to the pre-dynastic Naqada culture , with traces of settlement around 3500 BC. BC, and early dynastic period of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs . Already at the time of the 1st Dynasty there was a fortress made of adobe bricks with an attached settlement for the garrison on the eastern side of the island of Abu or Yebu , the southeastern part of today's Elephantine Island . Ab means "elephant" in Egyptian, the settlement was called Swnw (Sunu; Swenu) in ancient Egyptian times . For a long time it represented the southern border of Egypt and the gateway to sub-Saharan Africa, through which trade with Nubia was carried out. Gold, ivory, precious woods, herbs and peacock feathers were imported into Egypt, but also people who were used as slaves or soldiers.
Aswan was also very important in ancient times as a supplier of granite and rose granite , plutonic rock that was quarried in the nearby quarries and shipped north. Obelisks, statues and monolith shrines were carved out of the rock and delivered prefabricated. The remains of the quarries are now archaeological sites under the protection of the government of Egypt, including the open-air museum with the unfinished obelisk in the southern part of the urban area of Aswan. The quarries extended south to Philae Island . Furthermore, the quarries are on the 1979 World Heritage List of UNESCO .
Due to its strategic location, Swenu became the capital of the first Upper Egyptian Gau Ta-seti , the "Gau of the (Nubian) Arch Country". As Gaugötter were Khnum , Satit , Anuket , Isis , Nephthys , Horus , Osiris and Seth revered. Many of the temples in Aswan and the surrounding area were dedicated to them, some of which can still be visited today, such as the temples of Philae . But also in Aswan itself some buildings from ancient Egyptian times have been preserved, including the Nilometer on Elephantine. The first indications of settlement on the east bank of the Nile date from the 20th dynasty , the expansion to today's urban area took place during the 30th dynasty . Under the subsequent Ptolemies , the island of Elephantine lost its importance as a settlement.
The place was called Syène from the time of the Greek Ptolemies . The Egyptian border now ran further south behind Philae. Syène is known from this period as a measuring point for the determination of the circumference of the earth by the head of the library of Alexandria Eratosthenes . In the Greco-Roman period, two new temples were built on Elephantine. Most of the temples on Philae Island south of the city also date from this period. The Isis cult, which is based there, refused the Christianization demanded by the Byzantine rulers until 535/37 . Already 200 years earlier, in the early 330s, Syène became a bishopric and, as such, resisted the Islamization in Egypt for the longest time, which began with the Muslim conquest of the city in 642 by ʿAbd Allaah ibn Saʿd . In the High Middle Ages, ongoing battles with the Blemmyans ( Bedscha ) and a plague epidemic led to a decline of the city, which only came to an end with the Ottoman conquest of Egypt.
In 1902, the old, two-kilometer-long Aswan Dam , built by the English, went into operation six kilometers south of the city in the area of the 1st cataract. 13 kilometers south of the city, the new Aswan High Dam was inaugurated in 1971, 3.6 kilometers long and 111 meters high; he dams the 400 kilometer long Lake Nasser . In 1964, UNESCO launched the largest rescue campaign in the history of archeology . Temples such as Abu Simbel and around 35 villages were moved. Almost 150,000 people were resettled, most of them on the Egyptian side to Kom Ombo about 60 kilometers north of Aswan, on the Sudanese side to New Halfa in the Butana region.
Culture and sights
Only a few monuments of the ancient city have been preserved in the modern cityscape. These include a temple dedicated to Isis from the time of Ptolemy III. End of the 3rd century BC In the southern part of the city, near the Fatimid cemetery and the remains of a temple from the time of Domitian . The Swiss Institute for Egyptian Building Research and Archeology in Cairo and the Supreme Council of Antiquities Egypt have been carrying out systematic rescue excavations in the modern city since 2001 .
The earliest settlement of Aswan was founded under the name Abu at the beginning of the 3rd millennium at the southern end of the island of Elephantine as a fortress made of mud bricks. This extensive excavation area also includes the temple of the ram-headed god Khnum , who from here, as god of fertility and patron god of the island, controlled the water masses of the annual Nile floods.
On the left side of the stream on the Qubbet el-Hawa , at the level of the northern tip of the island, lie the ancient tombs of Elephantine; the Simeonskloster from the 6th to 7th centuries further up on the mountain slope without vegetation can be reached by boat from the west side of the Elephantine Island. The Botanical Garden of the city of Aswan is located on Kitchener's Island, which is up to 115 meters wide .
The island of Agilkia, on which the Isis temple on the flooded island of Philae , which was dismantled into 44,000 individual parts and rebuilt in 1979 , is located south of the Nile, between the old and new Aswan Dam. Not far away, on the west bank of the lake, is the Kalabsha Temple, which has also been transferred.
According to a statement by the Egyptologist Zahi Hawass at the beginning of July 2011, archaeologists near Aswan found a dating back to 3200 BC Chr. Treasured rock carving exposed, which shows a royal ceremony. It is the first completely preserved depiction from the time before the 1st Dynasty . The illustration shows hunting and fighting scenes as well as celebrations on the banks of the Nile.
Museums
Aswan Museum
The small Aswan Museum in the colonial-style former villa of William Willcocks , the designer of the first Aswan Dam, inaugurated in 1902, is located in the southeast of Elephantine Island. It opened in 1912 and shows artifacts that were saved from the rising waters of the reservoir at the time the old dam was built. In the 1990s it was expanded to include found objects on Elephantine itself. You can see weapons, ceramics, various utensils of everyday and religious life in ancient Abu (Yebu), ancient Egyptian mummies and plans of Aswan city development over the centuries. Of particular interest is the mummy of the holy ram in its gilded sarcophagus , which was found in a tomb behind the museum building.
Below the museum building is the Abu Nilometer, rediscovered in 1870 . The Nile level meter, which can be reached via 90 steps, was already mentioned by the geographer Strabo (63 BC - 23 AD). Next to the museum there is a garden that leads to the archaeological sites of the ruins of Abu.
Nubian Museum (Mathaf el Nuba)
Opened in November 1997, the museum on the southern outskirts of Aswan shows the art and history of Nubia from prehistoric times to the present day. In the main exhibition room there is a detailed model of the Nile Valley with the locations of the Nubian temples, which were relocated as part of the rescue from the flooding by Lake Nasser, the reservoir of the Aswan High Dam. 1200 exhibits from the various stages of Nubian history are on display, from ceramic bowls that are more than 6000 years old to finds from Egyptian and Cushitic rule and a documentation center of contemporary Nubian culture. They come from sites such as Qustul , Ballana , Faras and Qasr Ibrim . In addition, the museum has an ethnological department with a small model village, which is dedicated to today's culture of the Nubians who were resettled because of the reservoir. To the southeast of the museum is an extension of the ancient rose granite quarries.
Open-air museum at the unfinished obelisk
About 600 meters south-east of the Nubian Museum, in the middle of an ancient quarry, lies the unfinished obelisk, which was only partially carved out of the rock . Nothing is known when it was created. When completed, it would have been the largest obelisk in ancient times at a height of 41.75 meters. Cracks in the material should have led to the discontinuation of the work. The open-air museum around the unfinished obelisk gives insights into the stone-working technique of the ancient Egyptians. A second quarry is 1.5 kilometers further south.
Buildings
Archangel Michael Cathedral
The main Coptic Orthodox church in the city of Aswan is dedicated to the Archangel Michael . It stands at the southern end of the Corniche el-Nil promenade, east of the Ferial Gardens , a park on the Nile opposite the southern tip of Elephantine. The traditional style cathedral was built on March 19, 2006 by Pope Shenuda III. consecrated by Alexandria . It can be viewed daily with free admission.
Fatimid cemetery
The Fatimid cemetery extends between the Nubian Museum and the quarry with the unfinished obelisk . On top of it are some well-preserved small adobe buildings with domed roofs. However, many of the actual tombs are in poor condition and a number of marble inscriptions are on display in Cairo today . The oldest mausoleum structures date from the 9th century and are of great historical importance. The cemetery is occupied to the present day.
Monastery of Saint Simeon (Deir Anba Simaan)
Located on a hill 700 meters northwest of the Nile, west of Kitchener Island, the ruins of Simeon Monastery rise from the sand of the Libyan desert. The building complex was built after the Christianization of Upper Egypt from the year 571 in honor of the local saint Anba Simaan , but was actually named after a hermit Anba Hadra (Hatre, Hidra, Hadri) , who was the 23rd Patriarch of Alexandria from 385 to 412 by Theophilos , was ordained Bishop of Syene. Despite considerable structural damage, it is one of the best preserved Coptic monasteries in Egypt.
The two-level buildings provided living space for around 300 monks and additional rooms to accommodate several hundred pilgrims. During its 750-year existence there have been frequent attacks by nomads, but also, due to the lack of a well, difficulties with the water supply. After the destruction by the Arabs in 1321, in which numerous monks were killed and driven out, the monastery was abandoned. The monastery, built on two rock terraces of different heights, is surrounded by a six to seven meter high wall, consisting of quarry stone in the lower area with unbaked clay bricks placed on top.
The courtyard of the lower terrace can be reached through a door in the east tower. To the south, a three-aisled basilica from the 9th century borders the terrace, the stone floor of which has been well preserved. The central nave was originally provided with domes. In the apse of the three-part sanctuary , remains of religious frescoes can be seen. On the right side a door leads behind the apse into the baptistery . The monastery is flanked by several grottoes carved into the rock, which the first monks probably used as dwellings. Damaged paintings depicting saints have been preserved in a grotto west of the church. Stairs in the northwest lead to the upper terrace, to the former main building (Kasre). Only two of the former three floors of the main building with its sleeping cells, communal and utility rooms are still there.
Mausoleum of the Aga Khan
The Aga Khan Mausoleum is a domed structure made of pink sandstone surrounded by a high wall on the west side of the Nile, about 160 meters from the river bank and 800 meters southwest of the Simeon monastery. It houses the tomb of Sultan Mahommed Shah , who died in 1957 , a founding member of the Indian Muslim League and, as Aga Khan (Aga Khan III), the 48th Imam of the Ismailis , the spiritual head of this Islamic - Shiite religious community.
His widow, Yvette Labrousse , the Begum Aga Khan, was also buried there in July 2000. Up to this point she lived in the family's white villa, Nur el-Salam ("Light of Peace"), below the tomb building. The mausoleum , which was open to the public in the past, with its tomb made of white Carrara marble inside, in the side parts of which sections of the Koran are engraved, is now closed to the public. Due to its exposed location on the Nile opposite the southwest side of Elephantine, the building, based on the mosque al-Juyushi (al-Guyushi) in Cairo in the simple Fatimid style, is considered one of the landmarks of Aswan.
Necropolis of the rulers of Elephantine
On the south-eastern slope of the approximately 130-meter-high mountain Qubbet el-Hawa on the west bank of the Nile, several graves were carved into the rocks by guest princes and high officials of ancient Egypt. Burials took place there until the Greco-Roman times. Most of the 80 or so tombs date from the 6th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom , two from the New Kingdom period . The sarcophagi were pulled up ramps from the bank of the Nile to the grave sites. Well-known graves are those of the princes Sarenput I and Sarenput II , the official Mechu and his son Sabni I, as well as Aku and Harchuf . The earliest investigations of the rock tombs were carried out by the English General Francis Wallace Grenfell in 1885.
Parks
Botanical Garden
The Botanical Garden of Aswan is located on Kitchener's Island , Arabic Geziret an-Nabatat ("Island of Plants"). The 650 meter long and 115 meter wide Nile island lies west of Elephantine. It is home to tropical and subtropical plants from Africa and Asia, which were planted here like a park. These include mahogany trees , breadfruit trees , nutmeg trees , trumpet trees , mango - and sycamore fig trees , multi-colored bougainvillea -Büsche, hollyhocks , oleander , hibiscus , clematis and poinsettias . The abundance of plants forms an ideal nesting place for numerous bird species. From 1899 to 1916 , the island belonged to Horatio Herbert Kitchener , the temporary commander-in-chief ( Sirdar ) of the Anglo-Egyptian army and the first governor-general of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan , who laid the foundation for today's Botanical Garden.
Markets
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The main market of Aswan, the souk , extends three blocks from the Nile parallel to the river in the Sharia as-Souq . The offer in the 700 meter long market street ranges from Nubian handicrafts to perfumes, scented oils, lamps, clothing, cloths made of linen and silk to spices and fruits. The prices are generally somewhat more expensive than in the northern parts of Egypt due to longer delivery routes.
Heliac rising of Sirius
The Sirius was with his heliacal v emergence latest from around the 2850th In the Nile Delta the bringer of the Nile flood . This culturally important event was associated with the Sothis festival , which was based on the Sothis calendar . The preparations began on the eve of the New Year, gradually increased with dance interludes, and finally with the heliacal rise of Sirius in the twelfth hour of the night to greet the goddess Sopdet effusively and to welcome the new year after sunrise .
In Egyptology , the question has been discussed for a long time whether Aswan with the nearby Elephantine was initially the most important observation site with regard to the dating in the ancient Egyptian calendar . Due to its own movement , the heliacal rise in Aswan slowly shifted from June 15 (beginning of the third millennium BC) and also migrated through the ancient Egyptian calendar ( change year ). The spectacle of the heliacal rising can be observed at the present time on July 29th or 30th around 35 minutes before sunrise .
| process | year | Gregorian calendar | Egyptian calendar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sirius heliacal rise | 2734 BC Chr. | 15th June | 1. Achet I ( New Years Day ) |
| Sirius heliacal rise | 2010 and 2011 | 30th July | 10. Achet IV ( 10th Choiak ) |
Since it was noted in ancient times that the sun did not cast a shadow for a few minutes on the longest day at noon in Syene, the Tropic of Cancer was drawn here , which is actually about 60 kilometers further south.
Economy and Infrastructure
education
Aswan has six faculties and one of four branches of the South Valley University, which has existed since January 2, 1995 and has its headquarters in Qina, as well as other faculties in Luxor and Hurghada . University operations in Aswan began in 1973 with the Faculty of Education at Assiut University and was expanded in 1975 to include the natural science faculty of the same university. The newly founded South Valley University also included the faculties of technology, art, and social and energy sciences. In total, more than 100 academic staff work at the university in Aswan.
Partnerships
Aswan has had a partnership with the city of Chongqing , People's Republic of China , since 2005 .
sons and daughters of the town
- Mohamed Mounir , Egyptian musician who combines Arabic tarab music and Nubian music with elements of pop and rock
- Abbas el-Akkad , writer
literature
- Horst Jaritz: Investigations into the temple of Domitian in Aswan. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department (MDAIK) 34, 1975.
- Hans Strelocke: Egypt. History, art and culture in the Niltat: From the kingdom of the pharaohs to the present. DuMont, Cologne 1976, ISBN 3-7701-0836-1 , pp. 335-340.
- E. Bresciani: Il templo tolemaico di Isi. 1978.
- Stephan Seidlmayer : Aswan. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 152-157.
- Mathias Döring: 100 years of Nilstau in Aswan (= water & soil. No. 9/2000). Blackwell, Berlin 2000, pp. 40-47.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Egypt: The most important places with statistics on their population. World Gazetteer
- ^ Rainer Hannig: Large Concise Dictionary Egyptian-German: (2800–950 BC) . von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 3-8053-1771-9 , p. 1181.
- ↑ a b Giovanna Magi: Aswan. Philae, Abu Simbel. Translated by Christine Hock. Casa Editrice Bonechi, Florence 1992, ISBN 88-7009-240-2 , p. 4
- ↑ Syene. trismegistos.org
- ↑ Timetable. Egyptian National Railways
- ^ Giovanna Magi: Aswan. Philae, Abu Simbel. Translated by Christine Hock. Casa Editrice Bonechi, Florence 1992, ISBN 88-7009-240-2 , p. 3
- ^ Aswan History . justegypt.org
- ^ Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae. UNESCO World Heritage Center
- ↑ The Organization and Gradual Integration of Christianity in the First Cataract Area ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 88 kB).
- ^ A b Michael Dumper, Bruce E. Stanley: Aswan. In: Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A historical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO 2007, ISBN 978-1-57607-919-5 , p. 51.
- ^ Aswan / Syene. Swiss Institute for Egyptian Building Research and Archeology (Cairo)
- ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung. July 6, 2011, p. 12.
- ↑ a b c Aswan Museums - World Guide to Aswan
- ↑ Barbara Kreißl: Egypt. ADAC Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-89905-531-3 , pp. 107/108.
- ^ Aswan Landmarks and Monuments: Coptic Orthodox Cathedral
- ↑ Jimmy Dunn: St. Simeon Monastery (Monastery of Anba Hatre)
- ^ Giovanna Magi: Aswan, Philae, Abu Simbel. Translated by Christine Hock. Casa Editrice Bonechi, Florence 1992, ISBN 88-7009-240-2 , p. 29.
- ^ Aswan - Mausoleum of Agha Khan and Simeon Monastery
- ↑ Aga Khan Mausoleum
- ↑ The rock tombs of Aswan (at Elephantine) ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ^ Aswan Shopping and Aswan Shopping Districts
- ^ South Valley University
- ^ Chongqing Municipal Government
Coordinates: 24 ° 6 ' N , 32 ° 54' E