NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Aswan

History

Aswan is the ancient city of Swenet, which was in antiquity the frontier town of Egypt to the south. Because the Egyptians oriented towards the south, Aswan was the first town in the country, and Egypt was always conceived to open or begin at Aswan. It stood upon a peninsula on the right (east) bank of the Nile, immediately below (north of) the first cataract, which extend to it from Philae. It is supposed to have derived its name from an Egyptian goddesses with the same name, the Ilithya of the Greeks, and of which the import is the opener. The Nile (Arabic: , transliteration: , Ancient Egyptian iteru, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. ... Philae (or Pilak or Paaleq [Egyptian: remote place or the end or the angle island]; [Arabic: Anas el Wagud]) is an island in the Nile River and the previous site of an Ancient Egyptian temple complex in southern Egypt. ...

The name of the city is also said to derive from the Egyptian word for trade. The quarries of Aswan were celebrated for their stone, and especially for the granitic rock called Syenite. They furnished the colossal statues, obelisks, and monolithal shrines which are found throughout Egypt, including the pyramids; and the traces of the quarrymen who wrought in these 3000 years ago are still visible in the native rock. They lie on either bank of the Nile, and a road, 4 miles in length, was cut beside them from Syene to Philae. Aswan was equally important as a military station and as a place of traffic. Under every dynasty it was a garrison town; and here were levied toll and custom on all boats passing southward and northward. The city is mentioned by numerous ancient writers, including Herodotus (ii. 30), Strabo (ii. p. 133, xvii. p. 797, seq.), Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v.), Ptolemy (vii. 5. § 15, viii. 15. § 15), Pliny the Elder (ii. 73. s. 75, v. 10. s. 11, vi. 29. s. 34), De architectura (book viii. ch ii. § 6) and it appears on the Antonine Itinerary (p. 164). It has been suggested that Hieroglyph (French Wiki article) be merged into this article or section. ... Rock temples cut directly in the rocks at the Silsileh quarrying site, near Aswan The Stone quarries of ancient Egypt (now archaeological sites) once produced quality stone for the construction of decorative monuments such as sculptures and obelisks. ... The Luxor obelisk in the Place de la Concorde in Paris Obelisk outside Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. ... The Nile (Arabic: , transliteration: , Ancient Egyptian iteru, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. ... Philae (or Pilak or Paaleq [Egyptian: remote place or the end or the angle island]; [Arabic: Anas el Wagud]) is an island in the Nile River and the previous site of an Ancient Egyptian temple complex in southern Egypt. ... Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: HÄ“rodotos HalikarnÄsseus) was a Greek historian from Ionia who lived in the 5th century BC (ca. ... The Greek geographer Strabo in a 16th century engraving. ... Stephanus Byzantinus (Stephanus of Byzantium), the author of a geographical dictionary entitled Εθνικα (Ethnica), of which, apart from some fragments, we possess only the meagre epitome of one Hermolaus. ... This article is about the geographer, mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy. ... Pliny the Elder: an imaginative 19th Century portrait. ... De architectūra (Latin: On architecture) was a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect Vitruvius and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus. ... The Antonine Itinerary is a Latin document that can be described as the Road Map of Roman Britain. ...

A view along the street connecting railway station and Nile.

The latitude of Aswan – 24° 5′ 23″– was an object of great interest to the ancient geographers. They believed that it was seated immediately under the tropic, and that on the day of the summer solstice a vertical staff cast no shadow, and the sun's disc was reflected in a well at noonday. This statement is only approximately correct; the ancients were not acquainted with the exact tropic: yet at the summer-solstice the length of the shadow, or 1/400th of the staff, could scarcely be discerned, and the northern limb of the sun's disc would be nearly vertical. Eratosthenes used measurements at Aswan (Elephantine) to contest the Flat Earth theory and attempt to determine the circumference of the Earth, using Syene as the originating point and Alexandria as the terminal point of a measured arc (based upon shadow length at the solstice) to make an accurate estimate of the circumference of the Earth. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x770, 307 KB) View along one of the main streets in Aswan, Egypt. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1280x770, 307 KB) View along one of the main streets in Aswan, Egypt. ... The Nile (Arabic: , transliteration: , Ancient Egyptian iteru, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. ... For the novel by Henry Miller, see Tropic of Cancer (novel). ... This article is about the Greek scholar of the third century BC. For the ancient Athenian statesman of the fifth century BC, see Eratosthenes (statesman). ... Elephantine Island, showing the nilometer (lower left) and the Aswan Museum. ... For the 1984 album by Thomas Dolby, see The Flat Earth. ... This article is about the city in Egypt. ...

The Nile is nearly 3000 yards wide above Aswan. From this frontier town to the northern extremity of Egypt it flows for more than 750 miles without bar or cataract. The voyage from Aswan to Alexandria usually occupied between 21 and 28 days in favourable weather. The Nile (Arabic: , transliteration: , Ancient Egyptian iteru, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. ... This article is about the city in Egypt. ...

See also

A street parallel to Corniche in Aswan

Map showing reservoir The hydroelectric power station of Aswan Dam Aswan is a city on the first cataract of the Nile in Egypt. ... Elephantine Island, showing the nilometer (lower left) and the Aswan Museum. ... Philae (or Pilak or Paaleq [Egyptian: remote place or the end or the angle island]; [Arabic: Anas el Wagud]) is an island in the Nile River and the previous site of an Ancient Egyptian temple complex in southern Egypt. ... Luxor on Nile, at Luxor Temple with mosque. ... Kitcheners Island (now locally known in Arabic as Geziret an-Nabatat, which translates as island of plants; also known as Plantation Island) is a small, oval-shaped island in the Nile at Aswan, Egypt. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2039x1282, 522 KB) One of the streets parallel to the Corniche in Aswan, Egypt Photo: Przemyslaw Blueshade Idzkiewicz. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2039x1282, 522 KB) One of the streets parallel to the Corniche in Aswan, Egypt Photo: Przemyslaw Blueshade Idzkiewicz. ...

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Architecture · Art · Chronology · Cuisine · Dynasties · Geography · History · Mathematics · Medicine · Religion · Pharaohs · People · Language · Sites · Technology · Writing The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, published in 1854, was the last a series of classical dictionaries edited by the english scholar William Smith (1813â€“1893), which included as sister works the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities and the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. ... Sir William Smith (1813 - 1893), English lexicographer, was born at Enfield in 1813 of Nonconformist parents. ... Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... Khafres Pyramid and the Great Sphinx of Giza, built about 2550 BC during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom,[1] are enduring symbols of the civilization of ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt was a civilization in Northeastern Africa concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River... Image File history File links Egypt. ... For at least ten thousand years, the Nile valley has been the site of one of the most influential civilizations in the world which developed a vast array of structures known as Ancient Egyptian architecture. ... This article has been tagged since January 2007. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... An Egyptian couple harvesting from a painting in the tomb from the early Ramessid period. ... This page lists articles on dynasties of Ancient Egypt. ... Main article: Ancient Egypt Archaeological evidence indicates that a distinct culture was developing in the Nile valley from before 5000 BC. What is now called the Pharaonic Period is dated from around 3100 BC, when Egypt became a unified state, until its survival as an independent state ceased in 332... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Pharaoh was the ancient Egyptian name for the office of kingship. ... Map of Ancient Egypt List of Ancient Egyptian sites, throughout all of Egypt and Nubia Sites are listed with their classical name whenever possible, else their modern name and last if no other available their ancient name. ... Ancient Egyptian technology is a set of artifacts and customs that lasted for thousands of years. ... The writing systems of ancient Egypt include: Egyptian hieroglyphs Cursive hieroglphs Hieratic Demotic the Coptic alphabet Other texts discovered in Egypt and dating to the period before Islam include those written in: the Greek alphabet the Latin alphabet the Cuneiform script the Old Persian cuneiform script Tifinagh the South Arabian...

Egyptology · Egyptologists · Egyptology portal The Great Sphinx of Giza against Khafres Pyramid at the Giza pyramid complex. ... Egyptologist is the designation given to an archaeologist or historian who specialises in Egyptology, the scientific study of Ancient Egypt and its antiquities. ...

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