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Roots Earth in Aswan: audio stories about 40 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 40 places in Aswan, Egypt, in Africa. The Aswan stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Aswan, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 40 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: aswan.md

The 40 places in Aswan with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Philae Temple Complex
  2. Aswan High Dam
  3. Abu Simbel Temples
  4. Nubian Museum
  5. Unfinished Obelisk
  6. Elephantine Island
  7. Temple of Kalabsha
  8. Mausoleum of Aga Khan
  9. Aswan Low Dam
  10. Aswan Museum
  11. Qubbet el-Hawa
  12. Kitchener's Island (Botanical Garden)
  13. Agilkia Island
  14. Archangel Michael's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral
  15. Monastery of St. Simeon (Gabal Tingar)
  16. Sehel Island
  17. Famine Stela
  18. Temple of Beit el-Wali
  19. Kiosk of Qertassi
  20. First Cataract of the Nile
  21. Temple of Kom Ombo
  22. Temple of Amada
  23. Temple of Dakka
  24. Temple of Maharraqa
  25. Temple of Gerf Hussein
  26. Temples of Wadi es-Sebua
  27. Lake Nasser
  28. Aswan Souk (Sharia as-Souq)
  29. Corniche el-Nil
  30. Gharb Aswan Nubian Village
  31. Nubian Heritage Quarter
  32. Aswan University
  33. Heisa Island
  34. Daraw Camel Market
  35. Kom Ombo Town
  36. Aswan Governorate Centre
  37. Aswan International Airport
  38. Nubia (Cultural Region)
  39. Felucca Nile Sailing
  40. Gebel el-Silsila

Is there an audio guide for Philae Temple Complex?

Yes. Philae Temple Complex has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 40 Aswan places in the app, at 24.02528, 32.88417. Every one of the other 39 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Aswan

Open Roots Earth and choose Aswan. The city has its own map of places with all 40 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 40 places in Aswan, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 40 places in Aswan, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Philae Temple Complex

Coordinates
24.02528, 32.88417
In one line
A sacred island temple dedicated to the goddess Isis, begun under Nectanebo the First and enriched across Ptolemaic and Roman centuries. Rescued from the rising Nile and rebuilt block by block on Agilkia Island.

2. Aswan High Dam

Coordinates
23.971, 32.878
In one line
A colossal rock-fill dam built between 1960 and 1970 to tame the Nile's annual flood. It created Lake Nasser, generates hydroelectric power, and reshaped Egypt's agriculture, though it displaced tens of thousands of Nubians.

3. Abu Simbel Temples

Coordinates
22.337, 31.626
In one line
Two rock temples carved for Ramesses the Second in the thirteenth century before the common era, guarded by four colossal seated figures about 20 meters tall. Famous for a twice-yearly sunrise that lights the inner sanctuary.

4. Nubian Museum

Coordinates
24.08, 32.88944
In one line
A museum opened in 1997 that tells the long story of Nubian civilization and the great campaign to rescue its monuments from Lake Nasser. Its sandstone design won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

5. Unfinished Obelisk

Coordinates
24.077, 32.895
In one line
A giant obelisk abandoned in the granite quarries of Aswan after cracks split the stone. Had it been finished, it would have stood nearly 42 meters tall and been the largest ever raised in ancient Egypt.

6. Elephantine Island

Coordinates
24.09, 32.89
In one line
An ancient river island at Aswan, once Egypt's southern frontier town and a hub of the ivory trade. Home to the Temple of Khnum, a stepped Nilometer, and living Nubian villages along its lanes.

7. Temple of Kalabsha

Coordinates
23.96083, 32.86722
In one line
A grand Nubian temple built under the Roman emperor Augustus and dedicated to the sun god Mandulis.

8. Mausoleum of Aga Khan

Coordinates
24.08827, 32.8789
In one line
A pink-limestone tomb crowning the desert hills of the Nile's west bank, built between 1956 and 1960 for Aga Khan III, imam of the Nizari Ismailis. Its Fatimid-inspired domes overlook the river he loved.

9. Aswan Low Dam

Coordinates
24.03389, 32.86583
In one line
The first dam ever built across the Nile, raised by the British between 1899 and 1902. A vast masonry barrier of granite-faced stone, it was the largest of its kind in the world when it opened, and it reshaped the river forever.

10. Aswan Museum

Coordinates
24.08472, 32.88667
In one line
A small museum on Elephantine Island, established in 1912 by the Egyptologist Cecil Mallaby Firth. It gathers antiquities found in Aswan and on the island itself, from statues and sarcophagi to ram mummies sacred to the god Khnum.

11. Qubbet el-Hawa

Coordinates
24.10177, 32.88916
In one line
A necropolis of around 100 rock-cut tombs carved into the cliff on the Nile's west bank, burial place of the governors and expedition leaders of ancient Elephantine. Its name, Dome of the Wind, comes from a sheikh's shrine on the summit.

12. Kitchener's Island (Botanical Garden)

Coordinates
24.094, 32.887
In one line
A lush island garden in the Nile near Aswan, planted with exotic and tropical trees gathered by Lord Kitchener in the 1890s. Roughly 750 meters long, it is now a botanical research garden reached by felucca, shaded with palms from around the world.

13. Agilkia Island

Coordinates
24.02528, 32.88417
In one line
The island that received the Philae temple complex when it was rescued from rising water in the 1970s. Reshaped to echo the drowned island of Philae, it now carries the temple of Isis above the reservoir of the old Aswan dam.

14. Archangel Michael's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral

Coordinates
24.08, 32.89
In one line
A modern Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Aswan, consecrated in 2006 and ranked the second largest in Egypt. Twin towers, domes, and a white stone facade rise above the town, the spiritual home of Aswan's Christian community.

15. Monastery of St. Simeon (Gabal Tingar)

Coordinates
24.08528, 32.86806
In one line
A ruined 6th-century Coptic monastery on the desert hills west of the Nile near Aswan. Once one of Egypt's largest fortified monasteries, its mudbrick walls, keep, and church still rise above the sands beside the Gabal Tingar quarry.

16. Sehel Island

Coordinates
24.05917, 32.87111
In one line
A granite island in the Nile below the First Cataract, southwest of Aswan. Once sacred to the water goddess Anuket and worked as a quarry, its boulders carry hundreds of ancient inscriptions, including the famous Famine Stela.

17. Famine Stela

Coordinates
24.05751, 32.874
In one line
A Ptolemaic-era inscription carved into a granite boulder on Sehel Island. Its 32 columns of hieroglyphs tell of a seven-year famine ended by King Djoser, the god Khnum, and the sage Imhotep, set centuries before the carving itself.

18. Temple of Beit el-Wali

Coordinates
23.96186, 32.86639
In one line
A small rock-cut temple carved for Ramesses II and dedicated to Amun-Re and other gods. Famed for vivid painted battle reliefs, it was relocated near Kalabsha in the 1960s to escape the rising waters of the Aswan High Dam.

19. Kiosk of Qertassi

Coordinates
23.9603, 32.8675
In one line
A small Roman-era kiosk in brown sandstone, honouring Hathor and Isis. Its surviving columns include two crowned with Hathor heads. Originally built by the Qertassi quarries, it was relocated to New Kalabsha in the 1960s Nubia rescue.

20. First Cataract of the Nile

Coordinates
24.0145, 32.8768
In one line
The northernmost of the Nile's six cataracts, just south of Aswan, where granite boulders and rocky islets once broke the river into rapids. For millennia it marked Egypt's southern frontier, now largely submerged behind the Aswan dams.

21. Temple of Kom Ombo

Coordinates
24.45, 32.93
In one line
A Ptolemaic temple on the Nile north of Aswan, unique for its perfectly symmetrical double design. One half honours the crocodile god Sobek, the other the falcon god Haroeris. It is famed for its reliefs of surgical instruments and crocodile mummies.

22. Temple of Amada

Coordinates
22.73115, 32.26261
In one line
The oldest surviving temple in Nubia, begun by Thutmose III in the 18th Dynasty and dedicated to Amun-Ra and Ra-Horakhty. Famed for vivid painted reliefs, it was moved 2. 6 kilometers to escape Lake Nasser.

23. Temple of Dakka

Coordinates
22.8, 32.55
In one line
A temple to Thoth begun by the Meroitic king Arqamani and expanded by the Ptolemies and Roman emperors. Its towering 12-meter pylon survives in fine condition. The whole monument was moved to New Wadi es-Sebua during the Nubia rescue.

24. Temple of Maharraqa

Coordinates
22.8, 32.55
In one line
An unfinished Roman temple to Isis and Serapis that once marked the southern frontier of Roman Egypt. The only Nubian temple with a spiral staircase, it was dismantled in 1961 and rebuilt at New Wadi es-Sebua.

25. Temple of Gerf Hussein

Coordinates
23.2833, 32.9
In one line
A rock-cut temple built for Ramesses II by his viceroy Setau, dedicated to Ptah, Ptah-Tatenen, Hathor, and the deified king.

26. Temples of Wadi es-Sebua

Coordinates
22.79, 32.55
In one line
Two temples in the Valley of the Lions, one founded by Amenhotep III and a larger one built for Ramesses II by his viceroy Setau.

27. Lake Nasser

Coordinates
22.5, 31.86
In one line
One of the world's largest reservoirs, created by the Aswan High Dam between 1960 and 1970 and named for President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Its rising waters displaced Nubian communities and prompted the dramatic rescue of Abu Simbel and other temples.

28. Aswan Souk (Sharia as-Souq)

Coordinates
24.0925, 32.8985
In one line
Aswan's lively market street runs parallel to the Nile, heaped with spices, hibiscus, dates, and Nubian crafts. Heir to the city's ancient role as a trade gateway between Egypt and Africa, it blends Egyptian, Nubian, and Sudanese color and clamor.

29. Corniche el-Nil

Coordinates
24.0905, 32.8975
In one line
The Corniche el-Nil is Aswan's riverside promenade, a palm-lined walkway tracing the east bank of the Nile. Feluccas glide past granite islands while cafes, vendors, and cruise boats animate the city's busiest, most scenic public stage.

30. Gharb Aswan Nubian Village

Coordinates
24.092, 32.882
In one line
Gharb Aswan is a Nubian village on the Nile's west bank, famous for vivid blue and ochre houses, sandy lanes, and warm hospitality. Domed homes, painted facades, and Kenzi Nubian voices preserve a culture rooted along this river for millennia.

31. Nubian Heritage Quarter

Coordinates
24.0885, 32.8855
In one line
The Nubian Heritage Quarter celebrates the culture of Nubia, an indigenous Nile people whose kingdoms once ruled Egypt. Music, painted houses, crafts, and cuisine survive here after the 1960s dam displaced over 100,000 Nubians from their ancestral homeland.

32. Aswan University

Coordinates
23.9989, 32.8599
In one line
Aswan University is the city's public university, independent since 2012 after decades as a branch of Assiut and then South Valley University. Its desert campuses host faculties from medicine to archaeology, drawing students across Upper Egypt to the Nile's southern frontier.

33. Heisa Island

Coordinates
24.0145, 32.8768
In one line
Heisa Island is a granite Nile island near the High Dam, home to about 2,000 Kenzi Nubians in colorful hillside houses. Once a burial ground for Philae's priests, its people stayed put when the dam rose, simply moving to higher ground.

34. Daraw Camel Market

Coordinates
24.4, 32.91667
In one line
Daraw, north of Aswan, hosts one of Egypt's largest camel markets. Animals driven up the ancient Forty Days Road from Sudan are bought and sold here on busy mornings, in a raucous, dusty arena of traders, herders, and bargaining.

35. Kom Ombo Town

Coordinates
24.47, 32.95
In one line
Kom Ombo is a Nile town about 50 kilometers north of Aswan, ringed by sugarcane fields and famous for its double temple to Sobek and Horus. Once the ancient gold city of Nubt, it now shelters many Nubians resettled after Lake Nasser flooded their homeland.

36. Aswan Governorate Centre

Coordinates
23.59, 32.82
In one line
Egypt's southernmost governorate spreads across more than 62,000 square kilometres of desert, river, and the vast waters of Lake Nasser. Its capital, Aswan, has long been the country's gateway to Nubia and the heart of a region shaped by the Nile.

37. Aswan International Airport

Coordinates
23.964, 32.82
In one line
Built in 1956 and upgraded in the 1990s, Aswan International Airport sits about 16 kilometres southwest of the city. With a single long runway, it serves as the modern gateway to Aswan and the launch point for flights to distant Abu Simbel.

38. Nubia (Cultural Region)

Coordinates
24.0889, 32.8998
In one line
Stretching along the Nile from Aswan deep into Sudan, Nubia is one of Africa's oldest cultural regions. Home to ancient kingdoms, distinctive pyramids, and living languages, its people endure around Aswan even after the High Dam drowned much of their homeland.

39. Felucca Nile Sailing

Coordinates
24.0895, 32.8945
In one line
The felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat with a tall triangular lateen sail, long the workhorse of the Nile. Around Aswan, its quiet craft still glide between the islands, carrying travellers who prefer wind and water to the noise of motorboats.

40. Gebel el-Silsila

Coordinates
24.63333, 32.93333
In one line
At the Nile's narrowest point between Edfu and Kom Ombo, Gebel el-Silsila is ancient Egypt's greatest sandstone quarry. From here came the stone for Karnak and Luxor, and its cliffs still bear chapels, rock stelae, and the temple of Horemheb.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

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