Archaeological site · Egypt
Sehel Island Rock Inscriptions
جزيرة سهيل
Granite boulders on Sehel Island near Aswan carved with hundreds of ancient inscriptions, including the Ptolemaic Famine Stela.
Where it is
24.0578, 32.8722
Why go
Sehel, one of the larger islands above Aswan’s First Cataract, was a granite quarry and a halt for royal armies and trading expeditions heading into Nubia. Officials and kings left hundreds of inscriptions and cartouches on its boulders, from the Middle Kingdom to the Graeco-Roman era. Among them is the Famine Stela, a Ptolemaic text set in Djoser’s reign that tells how Imhotep traced seven years of famine to Khnum and the flood. Other carvings sit inside the precinct of a temple to the goddess Anuket.
Near Sehel Island Rock Inscriptions
Museum
Nubian Museum
Aswan’s Nubian Museum presents the archaeology, history and living traditions of Nubia.
3 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Historic site
Fatimid Cemetery of Aswan
One of the oldest Muslim cemeteries, on Aswan's east side, with early domed mausoleums from the Fatimid period.
3 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monument
Unfinished Obelisk
A giant obelisk abandoned in an ancient Aswan granite quarry after cracks appeared, still lying where it was cut.
3 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Elephantine archaeological site
Excavated ancient town on Elephantine Island in Aswan, with temples of Khnum and Satet, a Nilometer and a site museum.
3 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ