Elephantine Island

After the short crossing from the riverside walk Corniche of the exuberant lively Aswan (the cheapest way is to take the public ferry across the building of Egypt Air) a changed world opens: you feel a breeze, time seems to tick more slowly, a peaceful and relaxed athmosphere radiates towards you. On the banks women wash clothes in the river Nile, children are bathing and exulting. „Koti" and „Siou" are on the island Elephantine, two nubian villages with together about 3.000 inhabitants, parted by gardens with palms, trees with bananas, guaves and mangos, fields with clover, molochea and corn.

Unimaginable Aswan is so near. The houses - in the typical Nubian architectural style - are painted coulorfully, decorated with crocodile skulls or wall paintings of Mecca pilgrims, where one can discern how he had travelled. In the alleys amphorae are to be found, with "kubayas" on top of them, metal mugs, to scoop the cool water out of the jar and to slake ones thirst.

Goats, chicken, sheep, donkeys, dogs are looking for shade between the houses, nevertheless paths are clean, some puddles of water decrease - insha'allah - the dust. In the gardens between the trees bricks are made out of clay, which are stacked up to small walls. At the western bank there are small beaches of sand with view to the mausoleum of Aga Khan and Kitchener Island, feluccas are tethered up. Boys canoe in tiny rowing boats between Elephantine and Botanical Garden and sing French, English or German nursery rhymes for passing European guests, sailing down the river Nil in feluccas.

A guided tour through these villages and gardens with Mustafa can be warmly recommended. He loves his island and his felucca, he takes pride in the fascinating changing moments, which will make you stop every other moment, even if he always has to wait to let people take fotos or to look around without haste. Mustafa is keeping a wonderful balance between a lot of explanations and breaks inbetween, which are quite necessary under the sun of Aswan, answering patiently all questions and he will teach you "on the way" Nubian if you find pleasure in learning some words.

South of Koti one can marvel about the Aswan Museum and the excavation side of Yebu and temples around. (Yebu - old egyptian word for elephant - was the first settlement in this area which started about 6.000 years ago and which has been emporium for ivory. Present-day Aswan had been only the port of Yebu at that time. Still at the beginning of the Old Empire - 2.650 BC - the area around Aswan had been savannah with wild living elephants, according to climate researchers.)

Between Koti and Siou there is a house, in which one can visit endemic stuffed animals. Living crocodilebabies, which will be released later into Lake Nasser, show their big muzzles. Shortly after the plantation in Siou there is a evening meeting point, during the night drums are being beaten, Dominoes are played and there is dancing.

Tip:
Take the public ferry to get there. Opposite the Office of Egypt Air (short before Ferrial Garden, almost 2 km south of the trainstation) at the Corniche you will see a small shop selling water and cigarettes. Go there, pass the shop (which has also stairs), pass one more stairs and go down the next. This is the public ferry to Elephantine Island, which costs 50 Piasters for Aswan people. As a tourist its nice not to insist on change if you give 1 Pound (which is about 15 Cent).
There is a lof of hassle up on the street, captains try to sell their felucca. But they will let you go, if they see you only want to cross to the Island. Say the magic word: "La shukr, mush awes" (if you are a woman: ...awesa) - "No thank you, I dont want to" - and they will let you go with a smile because of your fluent arabic. At the Elephantine side Mustafa will be waiting at the ferry for you.

Please see also our guestbook:
Thank you for writing to us, and thank you, Fiona, for your great pictures you allowed me to used on this website!

Mustafa was able to take us for a wonderful 4 hour trip on teh Nile which was just magical. He also took us to visit his family and his home where we enjoyed amazing views and had tea and bread and at his mothers house. Petra contacted Mustafa while we were on the boat, to make sure that all was well and it most certainly was!
Linda Milton, Essex Photos Linda sent to us

... Then came the highlight of our time in Aswan, a trip on a felucca with Mustafa. Mustafa's English was superb and at no time did we have any problems understanding him. The trip was wonderful, all the time Mustafa was giving us options of things to do and let us tailor the trip to our tastes with his guidance. Our trip to his home, his mother's home and his village was very interesting and everyone gave us a very warm welcome. It was a shame we did not have any longer as we could have had a much longer trip on the felucca. Also we could have eaten with Mustafa's mother, but we met him on our last day and our time was limited. The food smelt wonderful, shame we had no more time to partake of it. ... Sue Medlycott, Swindon, England.

... I had a wonderful time in Aswan but I just wished I had longer there – we were only there for about a day in total as a lot of time was spent going to Abu Simbel. Mustafa was there when I got off the ferry and as a female traveling on my own, and having had some experiences in Egypt of people trying to take me in the wrong direction or to a shop to sell me more papyrus, I was a little bit cautious at first. He told me the museum was closed, and I didn’t believe him, but he was right! He took me to the crocodile house and I quickly realized I could trust him and he showed me round the island and took me on a boat trip. I wish I could have spent more time there but by this time I had already missed lunch on my boat and I was worried people would think I had got lost so I reluctantly left.

I will definitely recommend to any one else I know who goes to Egypt to get in touch with Mustafa. I also have mentioned him to someone I know who works for a travel company that specializes in small group travel and who like to make sure they support local people, in case they need any more contacts to organize things for their groups – as obviously this would be more regular work. Obviously if I ever get back to Aswan I will definitely make sure I get in touch with him and maybe stay on the island.
I hope you get back to Egypt soon – it is a fantastic country! Best wishes, Lyse
Photos of Lyse sent to us

Thank you Petra for helping us arrange our trip around Aswan, you were incredibly helpfull.
It was also nice meeting you in Aswan. Waleed arranged everything we'd asked for in Aswan, and our two days & two nights aboard Captain Mustafa's felucca were amazingly relaxing. Mustafa keeps a very clean boat, and is also an excellent cook; the food we ate on his boat was delicious, part of our Top 3 for Egypt !! Thank you Mustafa, and Menchaoui also. Photos about Elephantine and his trip by felucca to Daraw which Pierre Olivier Duval has sent us (thank you so much for them!)

Dear Petra, I wish that I had been able to spend longer with Mustafa on the two days as planned. (...) On Sunday, the feluuca was "becalmed" due to no wind, so we hopped on his friend's motorboat, and whizzed down to the first cataract, with M of course. He was pointing out all sorts of birdlife before we stopped on the island.

It was so tranquil in the heart of the island considering the city was only across the water. All the irrigation channels keeping the land "lush". We could hear the chatter/laughter of children quite a way from the school. People on the island seemed so different from those we had met in Luxor, who were quite "expectant" of gifts. Whether it was because Mustafa was with us I don't know, but I hope not. (...) Mustafa speaks English so well as is, telling us about the number of people living there, the number of schools, hospitals etc. How old is he, as he said he was born on the island and had lived there all his life (...)Fiona (please see pictures)

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