Elephantine Island
Peppered with palm tree plantations and sloping villages of colorful mud-brick houses, Elephantine Island is Aswan's major tourist attraction. At its southern end are Aswan Museum and the Ruins of Abu, Aswan's most ancient settlement, which contains the Old Kingdom Temple of Khnum and the Temple of Satet. The museum building, in a beautiful late 19th century villa, is partially open, with a collection of artifacts that span Elephantine Island's history up to the Roman era.
On the eastern embankment near the ruins and down a flight of steps is Aswan's Nilometer. Ancient Egyptians measured the Nile's rise and fall with these stone-hewn wells, allowing them to estimate the height of the annual flood and thus predict the success of their harvest. Once you've finished exploring the ruins, head north into the island to wander the backstreets of the villages of Koti and Siou, where the houses are painted with vibrantly colored designs. Sheep graze and chickens peck in the narrow alleyways, and farmers till their gardens as they have done for centuries.
There are frequent local ferries from the boat landing in downtown Aswan to Elephantine, or you can also hire a felucca to sail you around the island.
Sail on a Felucca
The quintessential way to sightsee in Aswan is by taking to the river on a felucca (traditional lateen-sail boat).
You'll have no problems finding a captain willing to take you on a river tour. Felucca captains hang out along Aswan's Nile-side corniche all day, touting for customers.
A typical short tour of around two hours sails in a loop around the islands of the central Aswan area, with great views of the rippling desert dunes of the west river bank, the lush palm-tree-sprinkled islands, and the city on the east bank.
For longer tours, make a half-day or full-day felucca itinerary and plan for a swimming stop along the way, plus stops at some of the central Aswan tourist attractions, such as the archaeological site on Elephantine Island, Kitchener's Island, and the west bank sites of the Monastery of St. Simeon and Tombs of the Nobles.
You can also head south, up the river, and out of central Aswan on a day-long felucca trip to Seheyl Island. The island is home to a Nubian village and a cliffside covered in inscriptions. The Famine Stele here documents the devastating famine that occurred during the reign of the 3rd Dynasty Pharaoh Zoser.
The Unfinished Obelisk
Aswan's Northern Quarry is home to the famous Unfinished Obelisk–a 41-meter-long and four-meter-wide chunk of stone that was probably abandoned because of a crack in the rock.
It's estimated that if completed, the obelisk would have weighed 1,168 tons and would have been the largest ever hewn.
On the surrounding rock faces, you can also see the many traces of the work of ancient stonecutters. The blocks here would have been detached from the rock by boring holes along a prescribed line, driving wedges into these, and then soaking the wedges with water to detach the block.
You can easily walk to the Northern Quarry area from Aswan's downtown area. It is just east of the Fatimid Cemetery and the Nubian Museum.
Address: Dr Abd Al-Raby Hanafy Street
Monastery of St. Simeon
The gloriously photogenic Monastery of St. Simeon sits between the sand dunes on the Nile's West Bank.
Founded in the 7th century CE and finally abandoned in the 13th century CE due to water shortages, it's one of the largest and best preserved Coptic monasteries in Egypt.
Inside the monastery courtyard, an aisled basilica takes up the southern side of the monastery.
At the east end of the wide nave, once covered by two domes, is the large apse, with three rectangular niches under semi domes. In the central niche are the remains of a fresco depicting Christ enthroned between angels.
To the north and west of the church are various subsidiary buildings and small grottoes, while the eastern side is made up of living quarters.
Upstairs, you will find some more well-preserved barrel-vaulted living quarters, including the monk cells, with brick beds and Coptic and Arabic inscriptions upon the walls.
Standing on the monastery's fortified walls, overlooking the undulating dunes, gives some sense of the isolation the monks who lived here must have faced.
Today, you can hire a boat or felucca to take you to the monastery boat landing and then either hike or take a camel ride (30 minutes) into the sand to get here.
Climb up to the Tombs of the Nobles
This series of rock tombs chiseled out of the West Bank's cliffs were where Elephantine Island's governors, priests, and other grandees were buried during the Old and Middle Kingdoms.
They're accessed by a series of steep staircases just to the left of Gharb Aswan's boat landing.
The first tombs you enter are Tombs 25 & 26 where 6th dynasty governors Mekhu and Sabni were buried. The artistry in both is somewhat simple and roughly worked.
Up the path to the right is Tomb 31, belonging to Prince Sarenput II, a contemporary of King Amenemhet II of the 12th dynasty. This is one of the largest and best preserved tombs in the necropolis.
Beyond the tomb chamber is a small corridor with three niches on either side. Look to the left of the first niche to see a figure of the dead man and his son with excellently preserved colors.
Tomb 34 (Harhuf's tomb) contains inscriptions recording successful trading expeditions in Nubia.
A flight of steps from here leads up to the Tomb of Setka (First Intermediate Period), which has badly damaged wall paintings that still have astonishingly vivid colors and are among the few surviving examples of the decorative art of this period.
Felucca to Aswan Botanical Gardens
Often included on sightseeing felucca trips, Aswan Botanical Gardens cover a small six-hectare island (often referred to as Kitchener's Island) just west of Elephantine Island.
The island was once the property of Lord Kitchener who transformed it into a verdant garden of exotic plants from Asia and Africa.
It's a little scruffy in parts these days, but is still a great place to come for a relaxing stroll amid mature trees and lush greenery, with plenty of bird-spotting opportunities in the late afternoon.
It's a popular spot for local picnickers on the Egyptian weekend, so if you're looking for a quieter experience, avoid Fridays and Saturdays.
High Tea at Old Cataract Hotel
We get tea here from our ship
The ornate façade and lush gardens surrounding the Sofitel Legend Old Cataract Aswan (the Old Cataract Hotel) are one of Aswan's major river bank landmarks, and impossible to miss if you're taking a sightseeing sailing trip around Aswan aboard a felucca.
The Sofitel Legend Old Cataract Aswan's biggest claim to fame is that Agatha Christie wrote part of Death on the Nile while staying here, and the hotel was also featured in the movie based on the novel.
If you want to do an "Agatha" but don't have the money to stay here, the hotel's terrace is the de rigueur place to have high tea in town.
Drinking tea while feasting on a very English selection of scones and sandwiches, and basking in the stunning views across the Nile to Elephantine Island and the sand dunes of the West Bank beyond, is about as close as you'll get to the great lady herself.
Address: Al-Fanadek Street
Lake Nasser Temples of Kalabsha
This group of temples were all saved from a watery end by UNESCO's rescue project, and now sit on the banks of Lake Nasser.
Kalabsha Temple is the best preserved of the three temples here and also the youngest, dating from the time of Roman Emperor Augustus.
The most imposing monument in Nubia after the Temple of Abu Simbel, it was built on the site of an earlier temple founded by Amenhotep II and re-founded during the Ptolemaic Dynasty.
The decoration was never completed, and the reliefs that do exist are crudely executed. During the Byzantine era, the temple was converted into a church.
Just to the northwest is the Temple of Beit el-Wali ("House of the Holy Man") built by Ramses II and consisting of a vestibule, transverse chamber, and sanctuary.
There are lively historical reliefs throughout the interior depicting many of Ramses II's battles and triumphs, including the king's triumph over the Kushites and his wars with the Syrians and Libyans.
Tiny Kertassi Temple sits just to the north and has two Hathor columns at the entrance and four other columns with elaborate floral capitals.
Taxis to Kalabsha can be easily hired in Aswan, and a trip here is best combined with a visit to Philae.