Elephantine is the largest island in the Aswan archipelago with many traces of its ancient history. It’s located 150 meters opposite the corniche. The island may have received its name because it was a trading place for Ivory.

In ancient Egypt, the island contained a fort that stood just before the first cataract of the Nile at Egypt’s southern border with Nubia. It was an excellent defensive site for a city and its location made it a natural cargo transfer point for river trade.

According to Egyptian mythology, here was the dwelling place of Khnum, god of the Aswan nome, who guarded and controlled the waters of the Nile from caves beneath the island.

In ancient times, the island was also an important stone quarry providing granite materials that would be transported widely within Egypt for monuments and buildings.

Ongoing excavations by the German Archaeological Institute at the city have uncovered many findings that are now on display in the museum located on the island, including a mummified ram of Chnum. Artifacts dating back to predynastic times have been found on Elephantine.

The oldest ruins still standing on the island are a granite step pyramid from the third dynasty and a small shrine, built for the local sixth-dynasty monarch, Hekayib.

A rare calendar, known as the Elephantine Calendar, dating to the reign of Thutmose III, was found in fragments. Also on the island is one of the oldest nilometers in Egypt, last reconstructed in Roman times and still in use as late as the nineteenth century.

In addition to the archaeological site, the island today is a part of the modern Egyptian city of Aswan and it houses the Aswan Museum at the southern extreme of the island, a sizable population of Nubians in three villages in the middle, and a large, dominating luxury hotel at the downstream, northern end.

ENTRANCE FEES
(as from 1st. Novembre 2019)
Entrance to the island is free.

Aswan Museum
Foreign Adult: LE 70
Foreign Child/Student: LE 35

HOW TO REACH THE ISLAND

• By public ferry (opposite Egypt Air offices - every 15 min).
• By private felucca or motorboat.