Enjoy a lovely tour to Elephantine Island, the fabulous Sehel Island, and the magnificent Tombs of Nobles at Qubbet El-Hawa in Aswan with your professional tour guide. Elephantine Island is a historical gem on the Nile, boasting ancient temples and a vibrant Nubian culture. While Sehel Island is renowned for ancient inscriptions and the Famine Stela. Aswan’s Tombs of the Nobles are hidden treasures, showcasing ancient Egyptian life and art. These cliff-side tombs offer a glimpse into the lives of powerful officials who guarded the southern gateway of Egypt.
Children from 0 – 5 years are free of charge
Children from 6 – 11 years get 50% off
Children from 12 years are considered adults
Explore the hidden gems of Aswan with our exclusive Aswan day tours. You will meet your guide at your hotel reception to commence your tour to Elephantine Island in Aswan.
Your first stop of your tour to Elephantine Island is at the Elephantine Island itself. Elephantine Island is the largest island in Aswan. Elephantine is the Greek name for pharaonic Abu. What to see on Elephantine Island? There the 18th- and 19th-dynasty pharaohs built a large temple to Khnum, the ram god of the cataract region, his consort, Satis, and to Anuket, goddess of nearby Sehel. To the north stands the Old and Middle Kingdom shrine. Numerous outstanding rock tombs of the Old and Middle Kingdom nobles of the city are situated high on the cliff on the west bank of the Nile.
In the Old Kingdom (c. 2575–c. 2130 BC) Elephantine was known as the “Door of the South,” since it was the most southerly city in Egypt and the starting point for Sudanese trade. In the Middle Kingdom (1938–c. 1600? BC) it was an administrative center for Egyptian-controlled Nubia. During the New Kingdom (1539–1075 BC), the region was part of the province of Nubia, but, from the Saite period (664–525 BC), it again became a frontier fortress. In modern times the island is the site of two Nubian villages.
Next, your tour to Elephantine Island takes you to the beautiful Sehel Island. The Island of Sehel is about 4km south of Aswan, in the Nile to the north of the old Aswan Dam. In ancient times travelers on their way to Nubia, or who had just returned from an expedition to the south, would make a pilgrimage to the sacred Island of Sehel and leave inscriptions recording their appeals or prayers of gratitude for the help in safely negotiating the hazardous first Nile cataract.
Several of them record events and journeys into Nubia by officials on the king’s business. The inscriptions are carved or bruised onto the jumbled mounds of granite boulders that are strewn over several areas of the island. Flinders Petrie visited Sehel in 1887 taking photographs and making sketches of the thousands of inscriptions he found on the boulders and cliffs by climbing rope ladders.
The two hills which dominate the south-eastern end of the island boast over 250 inscriptions, many of which are dedicated to the goddess Anukis and her consort Khnum and date from the Middle Kingdom to Ptolemaic periods. One of the remarkable inscriptions at Sehel island is the famous Famine Stela. This stela commemorates the reign of King Djoser, owner of the Step Pyramid in Saqqara.
You will conclude your tour to Elephantine Island at the tombs of Nobles. The river’s cape of Aswan is dominated by the sand-covered hills of the West Bank which are strewn with rock-cut tombs of high-status officials and Nobles of the Old and Middle Kingdoms. At the crest of the hill is the domed tomb of a Muslim prophet which gives the hill its local name, Qubbet el-Hawa or ‘Dome of the Winds’.
Your transfer back to your hotel marks the end of your tour to Elephantine Island in Aswan.
