Help building the largest human-edited directory of the web Suggest URL - Open Directory Project - Become an editor

directopedia.org uses links and structure from dmoz Open Directory Project.
The contents has been generating using technology developed by scientec.

The Nile at Aswan, seen from Elephantine Island

A view along the street connecting railway station and Nile

Another view along the street

A street parallel to Corniche in Aswan

Aswan (Arabic: محافظة أسوان Aswān ) (24°05′N 32°56′E, population 200,000) is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the governorate of the same name. It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist center.

Aswan is one of the driest inhabited places in the world; as of early 2001, the last rain here was 6 years ago. In Nubian settlements they generally do not bother to roof all of the rooms in their houses.

This is identified with the ancient city of Syene, which is famous for providing a basis on which Eratosthenes disputed the Flat Earth theory and attempted to determine the circumference of the Earth, using Syene as the originating point and Alexandria as the terminal point of a measured arc to make an accurate estimate of the circumference of the Earth.

See also: Aswan Dam, Elephantine, Kitchener's Island, Nag Hammadi

Governorates of Egypt
Ad Daqahliyah | Al Bahr al Ahmar | Al Buhayrah | Al Fayyum | Al Gharbiyah | Al Iskandariyah | Al Isma'iliyah | Al Jizah | Al Minufiyah | Al Minya | Al Qahirah | Al Qalyubiyah | Al Uqsur | Al Wadi al Jadid | Ash Sharqiyah | As Suways | Aswan | Asyut | Bani Suwayf | Bur Sa'id | Dimyat | Janub Sina' | Kafr ash Shaykh | Matruh | Qina | Shamal Sina' | Suhaj

This article is based on the article "Aswan" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.