Skip to content
Mixroutes
Aswan
City in Egypt

Aswan

Aswan is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of the Aswan Governorate.

Plan a trip to Aswan→From Luxor

The city of Aswan is among the oldest continuously inhabited cities, with its recorded history spanning over 2,600 years.

Get in

Getting to Aswan

  1. 01
    Aswan International Airport
  2. 02
    Aswan
  3. 03
    High Dam

    Southern terminus station of the Egyptian railway network, mostly local trains call here.

See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Nubian Museum
  2. 02
    Unfinished Obelisk

    The largest known ancient obelisk, carved directly out of bedrock.

  3. 03
    Archangel Michael’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral
  4. 04
    Fatimid Cemetery

    The faded former glory of the Fatimid empire can be seen on the crumbling graveyard.

  5. 05
    Ferial Gardens

    When you're in Aswan you'll have to walk along the Kornish Al Nile (Corniche) at least once.

  6. 06
    Elephantine Island: Nubian Villages & Aswan Museum

    Nubian villages of Siou and Koti occupy this island.

Do

Things to do

Rent a bike. Bikes available at many hotels. Cross the modern bridge to the east bank and bring back your bicycle afterwards by ferry boat. Camel rides. Grab a felucca captain and they will shuttle you across to the camel marshalling area. Ride the camel to the Monastery of St Simeon. Tea with the local shopkeepers.

Eat

Where to eat

= =

  1. 01
    Al-Masry Restaurant

    Great kafta and kebabs, pigeon, and chicken, all served with bread, salad and tahini.

  2. 02
    Aswan Moon

    Corniche an Nil (on pontoons along the Corniche),.

  3. 03
    Panorama

    Serves simple Egyptian stews served in clay pots, with salad, mezze, rice.

  4. 04
    Nubian House
  5. 05
    Chef Khalil

    Sharia al Souq (near the train station).

How locals move

Getting around Aswan the local way

  • Get inThe following airlines operate services to Aswan International Airport: Astraeus (from London Gatwick), EgyptAir (from Abu Simbel, Cairo, Luxor), LotusAir (from Cairo) and Petroleum Air Services (PAS) charter service (from Cairo).
  • Get inThese are luxury cruise tours taking 5 or more days for a splurgy price, they're not ferries.
  • Get inA passenger ferry operated by Nile River Valley Transport Corporation sails across Lake Nasser to Wadi Halfa in Sudan once a week.
  • Get aroundThe public ferry to Elephantine Island is LE5 for foreigners (LE1 for Egyptians, Nov 2018).
  • Get aroundThe ferry to the West Bank is also LE5 for foreigners and LE1 for locals.
  • Get aroundFor Philae, the High Dam, and the unfinished obelisks, you can take a taxi, tuk-tuk or a horse-drawn carriage.
  • Get aroundFrom the terminus it is only 1.2 km by foot, but there are also tuk-tuks willing to bring you further.
  • Go nextMany hotels and tour agencies can offer a mini-bus service, often departing at 4AM and going as part of a larger convoy, often with police together.

From Wikivoyage: Aswan, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.