Tourist-friendly Aswan

Aswan's granite quarries are famous, its bazaars exotic, its scenic beauty and sunny climate legendary. Nevine El-Aref revisits the city whose ancient noblemen of the Old Kingdom guarded the "southern gate"
A trip to Aswan to attend a conference provided me with a welcome opportunity to look into the latest tourist developments, notably at the granite quarries, the site of the Roman temple of Khnum, and the temple of Isis, which are all on the eastern bank of the Nile.
Aswan always reminds me of the days when my parents took us there during our mid-year school holidays. I remember how we used to stroll along the broad Corniche at sunset, watching the felluccas (sailboats) with their tall masts etched against the sky. I loved the oriental market full of scents and spices, perfumes, scarves and Nubian baskets. Sometimes my father took us for dinner on a floating restaurant where we would listen to Nubian music and eat freshly caught fish.
Like many other Cairenes, we sailed in felluccas around the granite islands, and I was introduced to such monuments as the beautiful marble mausoleum of the Agha Khan, the noblemen's tombs on Qubbet Al-Hawa, the temples of Philae and Kalabsh and, of course, the unfinished obelisk.
The granite quarry was our first destination on this latest trip: to check out the steps being taken to make the site more "tourist-friendly," a term increasingly in vogue these days. Ali El- Asfar, the general director of Aswan and Nubian monuments, accompanied us and was happy to take us first to a new visitors' centre -- not large, but with all the appropriate facilities.
"This centre is part of a three-phase development plan," he said proudly. "The aim is to clear and develop the whole area into an open-air museum for unfinished works of art."
This granite quarry has been used at every point in Egyptian history, but until recently part of the site was obscured by a rubbish dump. "When we cleared the dump while executing the first phase of our project, we came upon a remarkable number of unknown works, some fragmentary, some cracked, and also unfinished statues, columns, capitals and obelisks," El-Asfar said. "We also found sculpting tools used by ancient workmen at various periods of Egypt's history."
"We will leave existing pieces where we found them, and bring in unfinished monuments, or fragments of monuments, from other places. There are some unfinished Roman baths, and an incomplete statue of Ramses II which was found in Shellal. Also some located within the Nubian village on Elephantine Island," he added.
The plan is to encourage travel agents to include Aswan on their itineraries. Up to now, not more than a day has been allocated for groups travelling on Lake Nasser or Nile cruises to visit the new Nubia Museum and make a brief pause at the unfinished obelisk which lies conveniently near the main road.
Now a new tourist route is planned which will take in other sites, such as the Fatimid cemetery north of the granite quarries. At the quarry site, a walking route is being arranged so that people are guided from the ticket offices at the current entrance and through the visitors centre to the site of the unfinished obelisk, and then towards the other unfinished objects on display, exiting via the back-packers camp to the north and on to the main road.
"All the objects will be suitably labelled, with details of the sites from which they came, and also information of the quarrying techniques in ancient times," El-Asfar said.
Our second destination was the site of a Roman temple, much ruined, built in the ancient city by the Emperor Domitian. Cornelius von Pilgrim, the director of the Swiss mission in Aswan, told us the whole area was covered with refuse. "In order to reveal the ruins more than 2,000 cubic metres of rubble had to be cleared, and we found that the small temple had a small portico at its eastern side, facing the Nile, suggesting that it may have been part of a temple complex," he said.
It appears that the temple was known back in 1798 when Napoleon's expedition visited Aswan. It is situated north of the then uninhabited southern part of the ancient town, and, as explained by Masr El-Sharqawi, the head of the information department of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA): "When Champollion came to Aswan in 1820, he copied some inscriptions from the door jambs over the entrance of the sanctuary. Later the temple was neglected, stones from the sanctuary were removed, and only the façade and the lateral walls of the open courtyard remained. Later still the temple suffered further damage, and only in the 1970s was an architectural survey made."
Last November, the Swiss-Egyptian Mission at Syene (ancient Aswan) began clearing the area of what is now generally known as the Domitian Temple. I found it difficult, even with the help of architects, to make out the architectural features of the monument. There is no doubt that it is of great historical interest, but I cannot see it developing into a tourist attraction.
We spent the night at the Basma Hotel, just up the hill from the Nubia Museum. We were joined by friends, tried out the pool, and later set out for a stroll around the market and the narrow streets of the old town. This area had changed little from my childhood. As before, most of the traders displayed their wares on the cobbled street in front of their shops. Tall wicker baskets were full of exotic spices with piles of brightly coloured karkadeh (hibiscus), henna and dark-leafed mint. I bought a silver ring and matching bracelet, light-heartedly bargaining as expected in Aswan and setting on a good price.
The temple of Isis was our final destination. This is a small temple also situated in the old town and, I must say, a far cry from the famous Temple of Isis on Philae. This one is made of sandstone with a ceiling of granite. Its sacred precincts have been infringed upon over the millennia, and today its courtyard has disappeared; only the ruins of Roman and Islamic houses remain as an indication of its re-use over the centuries. The temple was even used for some time as a storage area by the SCA.
Now, I was told, an American-Swiss-Egyptian mission was restoring the temple. Discoveries made during the course of their work include 100 pieces of Coptic graffiti and an ancient architectural sketch indicating a planned extension to the temple. "This is extremely rare," said Gaballa Ali Gaballa, archaeological adviser to the minister of culture. "The only similar sketch was found in the tomb of Ramses VI, on a piece of ostraca now on display in the Egyptian Museum."
We rounded off our trip by sailing upstream to Shellal, once an important port. We did not disembark, merely sailing near the bank where the Nile water was clear and shallow, and where it was possible to see the coloured basalt and granite rocks in the water and the varieties of aquatic plants. It was a relaxing conclusion to our trip.
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