Egypt’s Aswan in five islands

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Egypt’s Aswan in five islands

There are many amazing things about a cruise on the River Nile — and one is just how many islands you’ll pass. There are hundreds of them. Most are tufted with vegetation, sometimes occupied by grazing oxen, donkeys and wading birds or frequented by men in rowing boats who harvest the abundant reed beds. Strikingly different, festooned with everything from plush resorts to epic granite boulders, are the islands around Aswan. This is the principal city of southern Egypt and a regular stop on Nile voyages. It’s where passengers usually swap their cruise ships for rides on smaller vessels, including motorboats and feluccas — traditional masted sailing boats — that ply the waters around Aswan. Here are five spots to seek out.

ELEPHANTINE ISLAND

Once a hive for the ivory trade, this island has been settled by humans for millennia — it has ruins dating from Egypt’s Old Kingdom (2686BC-2181BC) and quarries that supplied granite for grandiose monuments in Luxor, over 200km downriver. Ancient relics are also on show at the Aswan Museum, founded here in the early 20th century by British Egyptologist Cecil Mallaby Firth. That’s at the island’s southern end, while at the northern tip is the island’s modern icon. Boasting the highest point in Aswan, resembling an airport control tower, the panoramic bar and restaurant of the Movenpick Resort has sweeping views of the city, the Nile, its islands and desert surrounds.

Camera IconGranite formations characterise the islands around Aswan. Credit: Steve McKenna/ KITCHENER’S ISLAND

Also known as El Nabatat, this island was named after the British field marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, who was awarded it in the 1890s as a reward for his military exploits in Sudan, a country to the south of Egypt. When he wasn’t leading or plotting battles, Kitchener was often cultivating palms and flowers. He transformed most of this oval-shaped island, measuring 1km long and 500m at its widest point, into the Aswan Botanical Garden, a lush and lovely escape with trees and plants collected from British colonies in Asia and Africa. The island was bequeathed back to the Egyptian people after the death of Kitchener, then Britain’s secretary of state for war, in 1916 (he was one of 737 passengers who died after their ship was sunk by a ******* mine near Orkney, Scotland).

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Birdsong provides a pleasing audio backdrop as you glide around the islands of Aswan. A particularly luxuriant cluster of islets form the Salouga and Ghazal nature reserve, which was created in 1986 to protect the biological diversity here. Keep your eyes (and binoculars) peeled for resident and migrating birds as you pass the reedy banks. ******-headed ibises, egrets, cormorants, herons, bulbuls and Eurasian hoopoes are often spotted as are Nile Valley sunbirds, whose males sport dazzling yellow and green feathers when breeding during the winter season (December-March).

NAGAA SUHAYL GHARB

Even more colourful are the brightly painted village homes and shops of this surreal village, on the river’s west bank just opposite Seheil Island, another spot rich in archaeological sites and granite quarries. The culture and language of Nubia — an ancient civilisation that flourished between today’s southern Egypt and northern Sudan — runs deep in Nagaa Suhayl Gharb and many Nubian homes open their doors to tourists. Some properties have been converted into guesthouses and cafes. Several have sandy floors and rooftops where you can take in the views over the Nile.

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Tens of thousands of Nubian people were displaced — and relocated to the Aswan city region — following the construction of the two Aswan dams, which aimed to regulate the flow of the flood-prone Nile. Completed in 1902, the first dam resulted in the Philae Temple being submerged in a new reservoir. It was remarkably salvaged decades later, moved piece by piece (in over 40,000 blocks) from its original flooded island location to the slightly higher neighbouring Agilkia Island. You can now wander around the sandstone ruins, which date from the 7th century BC and are among the most spellbinding in all of Egypt. They include a temple devoted to the ancient goddess Isis and later shrines and gates built for Ptolemaic pharaohs and Roman emperors.

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+ Aswan is a stop on most Nile cruises, including the 7-night Luxor-Luxor voyage with CroisiEurope, a French operator that caters for French and English-speaking passengers and spends two nights in Aswan. Fares are available from around $2500 per person. Itineraries are also offered with a pre-cruise stay in Cairo.

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+ The best time to cruise the River Nile is from November to April, when daytime temperatures average between 25C-30C. For more information on visiting Egypt, see

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#Egypts #Aswan #islands

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