3 Days in Aswan

Philae is the temple of Isis, and it is where the saving of Nubia is easiest to see. After the Low Dam of 1902 the island was flooded for much of the year, and after the High Dam it would have gone under for good. In 1977-80 an Italian-led team took 95 structures apart and rebuilt them 12.4 m higher on the island of Agilkia, shaped to match the old one.

You reach it from the Shellal pier, about 12 km south of the center, by a ten-minute boat ride. Walk the colonnade to the first pylon, find Trajan's Kiosk by the water, and look for the crosses carved into the walls from when the temple became a church. The roof panorama is a separate ticket.

The High Dam is the reason Philae, Abu Simbel and the old Nubian villages had to move. It was built between 1960 and 1970, is 3,830 m long and 111 m high, and holds back Lake Nasser, a reservoir about 500 km long. It ended the annual flood and the famine years, and it also displaced an estimated 100,000 to 120,000 Nubians in Egypt and Sudan.

What you see is a very long, low bank of rock and a lot of blue water. It's more important than it is impressive. Stand on the crest for the lake view, then go to the lotus-shaped Egyptian-Soviet friendship monument, which has a viewing deck. Thirty to forty-five minutes is enough.

Come back into town and eat where Aswan eats. Small restaurants along the corniche and the streets behind it do grilled fish from the Nile or the lake, chicken with rice and a good ful or ta'ameya plate for a few euros. The ones with a Nile view cost more and are often worse.

Order karkade, the red hibiscus tea.

The Unfinished Obelisk lies in the northern granite quarries where Egypt got its obelisks. It would have stood about 42 m and weighed close to 1,100 tonnes, a third larger than any obelisk ever raised, and it may have been ordered by Hatshepsut. Then a crack ran through the granite, and the workers walked away from it, still attached to the bedrock.

That is the interest: you can see how it was made. Tool marks and red ochre guide lines are still on the stone, and a short path leads around and above it. It's a small site. Half an hour is enough, forty-five minutes if you linger at the edge of the quarry.

The Nubian Museum opened in 1997 as part of the UNESCO campaign to save the monuments of Nubia, and it won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2001. It tells the story of the region from prehistory to the building of the dam and the flooding of Nubian homes. Start with the big stone pieces and the model of the relocation, then take your time in the section on Nubian life: houses, clothing, music and the resettlement. The garden outside is quiet and shady.

The corniche is where the town comes out at dusk. Walk north from the Nubian Museum with the river on your left, past the moored cruise boats and the felucca masts, as the west bank hills turn orange. Sunset in early and mid November is at about 5 pm.

Turn inland at some point into the souq, the market street behind the corniche, for spices, baskets and Nubian talismans; there is less pressure to buy than in most Egyptian cities. Touts will offer felucca and carriage rides every few steps. A polite no is enough.

Aswan has two kinds of evening meal: the cheap grill near the station and the river-view terrace. For the second, the Panorama restaurant on the top floor of the Mövenpick on Elephantine Island has a long view of the Nile at sunset; reviews of the food are mixed, so go for the view. Check it is open.

For something simpler, any busy grill will do shawarma or kebab with salad and bread for a few euros, and many restaurants serve molokhia with rice.

Elephantine was the ancient city at the border, and its dig is still going. The stone steps of the Nilometer go down to the river, and they were used to read the flood until the High Dam made them pointless. Papyri found here record a Jewish mercenary community with its own temple, destroyed in 410 BC.

Take the public ferry across from the corniche, then walk. Look at the ruins of the temples of Satet and Khnum, the Aswan Museum in the former villa at the southern end, and then wander the two Nubian villages, Siou and Koti, where houses are painted in blue and green.

Kitchener's Island, or El Nabatat, is a small island just west of Elephantine, under a kilometer long, and the whole of it is a garden. Lord Kitchener, the British official, made it a collection of exotic trees, many from India. Later it became a state research station, and it's now open to visitors.

Walk the paths under royal palms and bright flowering trees. The honest verdict: it's a pleasant hour and the best shade in Aswan, not a spectacle.

Nubian cooking is a small branch of Egyptian food, heavier on stews, fish, cumin and dried lime. Al Dokka is the well-known Nubian restaurant on the Nile, with Nubian coffee and a boat that can pick you up. Reviews are good, but at least one guide marks it closed, so call before you go.

If it isn't open, a Nubian house restaurant on the west bank or Elephantine is an easy fallback.

The Nubians are the people of southern Egypt and northern Sudan, with their own languages and a long history, and many of their villages were drowned by Lake Nasser. Gharb Soheil, on the west bank, is one of the villages where you can still see the old style: low houses painted in bright colors, doors with patterns, and tea offered in a family courtyard.

Reach it by felucca or motorboat from the corniche, and let the captain agree the rate and the stop before you leave. Walk with a local guide if you can, ask before you photograph a person or a doorway, and buy a scarf or bracelet from the family you sat with. Skip the camel rides decorated for photos and any place that charges you to hold or pose with a young crocodile. Those are animal traps, and your money keeps them going.

Feluccas are the wooden sailing boats of the Nile, and Aswan is where they look best: granite rocks, palm islands and no motor noise. The classic loop passes Elephantine and Kitchener's Island, with the Aga Khan Mausoleum and the cliffs of the west bank in view. Sunset is at about 5 pm in November.

Fix the price per boat, the length and the stops before you sit down, and pay at the end. The wind decides everything: on a still evening the captain may row. Bring a sweater, because the river gets cold once the sun drops.

By road, vans leave Aswan in the dark, some at 4 or 4:30 am, to reach the temple around sunrise. Traditionally this was a police convoy, and some 2026 guides say it is no longer required, so ask your hotel. A shared seat is the cheap option, a private car the comfortable one. Sit on the left going out for the sunrise.

EgyptAir flies Aswan to Abu Simbel on some days of the week, and one timetable site shows midday departures. Check the days and times, and whether they leave you enough hours on site.

Abu Simbel was carved into a cliff in the 13th century BC for Ramesses II, and the huge seated figures on the facade were meant to frighten Nubia. In the 1960s, when Lake Nasser threatened to cover it, engineers cut the temples into blocks and rebuilt them inside an artificial hill on higher ground, finishing in 1968.

Stand back at the water's edge for the facade, then go inside. The hall carvings show Ramesses at the Battle of Kadesh. In the innermost sanctuary the sun lights three of the four seated statues, and that happens around 22 October and 22 February. The ministry sells a separate alignment ticket for those dates at 1,200 EGP (about 19 EUR), so decide early if you want to be there.

The smaller temple next door was built for Ramesses II's wife, Nefertari, and for the goddess Hathor. Its facade is unusual because the queen stands as tall as the king, which was rare. Inside, the hall carries Hathor-headed pillars and scenes of the queen with the gods.

It's quieter than the Great Temple and quick to do. Take a last look back at the pair from the shore of the lake.

The village of Abu Simbel has a handful of simple cafés near the temple road. Grilled chicken or fish with rice and bread is the usual meal, and a cold drink and a plate of ta'ameya will do if you're in a hurry. Many organized tours include lunch.

Agree the return time with your driver before you leave Aswan, since vans and the road run on their own schedule.