Aswan Travel Information
Location:
Aswan stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist center. The modern city has expanded and includes the formerly separate community on the island of Elephantine. Its Upper Egypt is immediately north of the first cataract. Navigation to the delta was possible from this location without encountering a barrier. From this frontier town to the northern extremity of Egypt the river flows for more than 1100 km without bar or cataract.
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Nile River Facts
Most people know that Egypt’s economy throughout its history has been based around the Nile — through the millennia the river’s annual flooding has watered and fertilized its farmlands, and from 1902 the Aswan Dam, and from 1970 the Aswan High Dam have controlled the flooding and allowed properly irrigated agriculture. But for this writer, it took an actual visit to Egypt to appreciate just how central the river is not just to the economy and history but to the cultural, intellectual and spiritual life of the country.
Indeed, as you can see for yourself quite clearly if you fly over it, Egypt is not so much a country as a corridor, a narrow strip of continuously cultivated land on both sides of the river where 90 per cent of the population live — surrounded by burning desert. The river provides up to 90 per cent of the water needs of a country where, especially in Nubia in the south, it sometimes doesn’t rain for years on end.
Facts
- It's over 4,000 miles in length.
- It originates in the Kagera River, in southern Burundi (not in Lake Victoria).
- It splits into a delta in northern Egypt (called Lower Egypt since the ancient Egyptians looked the other way), the bread-basket of the Roman Empire.
- It travels through Uganda and Sudan as the White Nile, and is joined by the Blue Nile at Khartoum.
- The building of the Aswan Dam in the 1960s created Lake Nasser - the world's largest reservoir. It also stopped the silt which fertilised Egypt's fields.
Minimum and Maximum Temperature (Climate):
The Nile is nearly 3,000 yards wide above Aswan. From this frontier town to the northern extremity of Egypt, the river flows for more than 750 miles (1,210 km) without bar or cataract. The voyage from Aswan to Alexandria usually took 21 to 28 days in favourable weather. Aswan is a very dry and sunny places with no rain whatsoever, making it one of the driest places on earth. Aswan is one of the driest inhabited places in the world; as of early 2001, the last rain there was seven years earlier. As of 6 April 2010, the last rainfall was a thunderstorm on May 13, 2006. Temperatures between November and February are pleasantly warm, between 23 °C and 28 °C, while average daytime temperatures in summer are above 40 °C, but records of 51 °C have been measured here. In Nubian settlements, they generally do not bother to roof all of the rooms in their houses.
| Climate data for Aswan | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 38 (100) |
39 (102) |
43 (109) |
46 (115) |
48 (118) |
51 (124) |
51 (124) |
49 (120) |
47 (117) |
44 (111) |
42 (108) |
37 (99) |
51 (124) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 23 (73) |
26 (79) |
31 (88) |
36 (97) |
39 (102) |
42 (108) |
41 (106) |
41 (106) |
39 (102) |
37 (99) |
31 (88) |
25 (77) |
34 (93) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 10 (50) |
11 (52) |
14 (57) |
19 (66) |
23 (73) |
26 (79) |
26 (79) |
26 (79) |
24 (75) |
22 (72) |
17 (63) |
12 (54) |
19 (66) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 3 (37) |
2 (36) |
6 (43) |
9 (48) |
11 (52) |
20 (68) |
21 (70) |
19 (66) |
17 (63) |
14 (57) |
6 (43) |
4 (39) |
2 (36) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
Aswan Tourist Map
Click on the image for full view
For More Travel Information Visit: Aswan Tourism and Tourist Information
Where To Stay:
Aswan, phone code: 097
|
5 star |
Tel |
Fax |
|---|---|---|
|
Amoun Tourist Village |
480438 |
480440 |
|
Aswan Oberoi |
314667 |
323485 |
|
Isis Island Hotel |
317400 |
317405 |
|
New Cataract Hotel |
323434 |
323510 |
|
Pullman Cataract Hotel |
316002 |
316011 |
|
4 star |
Tel |
Fax |
|---|---|---|
|
Basma Hotel |
310901 |
310907 |
|
Isis Hotel |
315100 |
315500 |
|
Kalabsha Hotel |
322999 |
325974 |
|
3 star |
Tel |
Fax |
|---|---|---|
|
Amoun Hotel |
322555 |
322555 |
|
Cleopatra Hotel |
324001 |
314002 |
Abu Simbel
|
4 star |
Tel |
Fax |
|---|---|---|
|
Nefertari Abu Simbel |
316402 |
316404 |
|
3 star |
Tel |
Fax |
|---|---|---|
|
Nobaleh Ramses Hotel |
311660 |
311660 |
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