Aswan

Aswan is the ancient city of Swenett, later known as Syene in Southern Egypt. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just North of the Aswan Dam on the East bank of the Nile at the first cataract.

The city includes five monuments within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae (despite Aswan being neither Nubian, nor between Abu Simbel and Philae), these are:

1. The Old and Middle Kingdom tombs of Qubbet el-Hawa
2. The town of Elephantine
3. The stone quarries and Unfinished Obelisk
4. The Monastery of St. Simeon
5. The Fatimid Cemetery.

Swenett is supposed to have derived its name from an Egyptian goddess with the same name, however this goddess was later identified as Eileithyia. The ancient name of the city also is said to be derived from the Egyptian symbol for “trade” or “market”. Because the Ancient Egyptians oriented themselves toward the origin of the life-giving waters of the Nile in the South and as Swenett was the Southernmost town in the country, Egypt always was conceived to “open” or begin at Swenett.

The stone quarries of ancient Egypt located here were celebrated for their stone, and especially for the granitic rock called Syenite. They furnished the colossal statues, obelisks, and monolithic shrines found throughout Egypt, including the Pyramids and traces of the quarrymen who worked there 3,000 years ago are still visible in the native rock.

Swenett was equally important as a military station. Under every dynasty it was a garrison town, here tolls and customs were levied on all boats passing Southwards and Northwards. Around 330, the legion stationed here received a bishop from Alexandria, this later became the Coptic Diocese of Syene.

The Nile is nearly 650m (0.40mi) wide above Aswan. From this frontier town to the Northern extremity of Egypt, the river courses for more than 1,200km without bar or cataract. The voyage from Aswan to Alexandria usually about took 21 – 28 days in favorable weather.

Archaeologists discovered 35 mummified remains of Egyptians in an Aswan tomb in 2019. The tomb, where the remains of ancient men, women and children were found, dates back to the Greco-Roman period between 332BC and 395AD. While the remains assumed belonging to a mother and a child were well preserved, others had suffered major destruction. Other than the mummies, artifacts including painted funerary masks, vases of bitumen used in mummification, pottery and wooden figurines were revealed. Thanks to the hieroglyphics on the tomb, it was deciphered that the tomb belongs to a tradesman named Tjit.

Thus was a very important discovery because something was added to the history of Aswan that was missing.  Tombs and Necropoli dating back to the second and third millennium were known, but it wasn’t known where the people who lived in the last part of the Pharaoh era were…