Aswan

Aswan is the calmest town in Upper Egypt and has the most beautiful stretch of the Nile: the river runs between granite islands and golden dunes on the west bank, crossed by white-sailed feluccas. Its monuments belong to "Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae", on the UNESCO list since 1979.

The Temple of Isis at Philae was moved stone by stone to Agilkia Island in the 1970s to save it from the dam's waters, and you reach it by small boat. About 280 km further south stand the two temples of Abu Simbel, cut into the mountain by Ramesses II and moved to their present site between 1964 and 1968.

In the evening you sail by felucca around Elephantine Island and the Botanical Garden, visit a Nubian village with its painted houses and its hospitality, or sit on the terrace of the Old Cataract as the sun goes down behind the hills. Nile cruises to Luxor start or end here.