Elephantine Island on Aswan

Before the city of Aswan was there, Elephantine Island was the site of a pharaonic era trading town called Swenet that used the island and the turbulent waters of the First Cataract as protection from attack. Its location just below the cataract made it an important trade hub, where caravans from the south unloaded their goods to be transported north on the river. Left behind from this pharaonic settlement is the late-pharaonic era Temple of Khnum and other, partially excavated, ruins that are scattered over the rest of the island.