Over the centuries Aswan, Egypt's southernmost city, has been a garrison town and frontier city, the gateway to Africa and the land of Nubia, and a prosperous marketplace at the crossroads of the ancient carvan routes. Nubians are different than Egyptians. They are more like Africans. However, these days, they are struggling to keep their ancient culture alive as everything and everyone is turning into Egyptian.
Thanks to its long and ancient history, Aswan has fascinating Pharonic, Graeco-Roman, Coptic, Islamic, and modern monuments.
I started my discoveries of the Nubian culture and hostory from the Nubian Museum, where I could find both of these showcased in the timeframe of prehistoric ties to the present. There are fossils, tools, and other evidences depicting the prehistoric life in this area. There is, of course, a big section recording the Pharonic period. One of the very interesting part of the museum is about the Aswan dam and the high dam. It shows the challanges of saving the historic sites from the biggest man-made lake that was created by the construction of high dam on Nile, and how many countries helped Egypt to face those challanges.
