Aswan - Ancient Town of Elephantine
The whole of the southern part of Elephantine, part of which is occupied by the more southerly of the two villages, was once covered by the ancient town of Elephantine, the remains of which were first explored in the 19th C. and since 1969 have been undergoing excavation and investigation by modern methods.
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Ancient Residential Elephantine
Various other buildings described by the French expedition in the early 19th C. were later pulled down, among them two temples built respectively by Amenophis III and Tuthmosis Ill. The residential area of the ancient town lay to the southwest of the temple area. During the Old Kingdom the town was enclosed by a wall on the south side, and a gateway in this wall can still be identified.
Hekaib Temples
To the north, between the temples of Satet and Khnum, are the remains of a small temple, formed out of three earlier chapels, dedicated to Hekaib, Prince of the Nome of Elephantine, whose rock tomb is on the west bank.
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Temple of Satet
A few paces west of the Nilometer, surrounded by brick walls, are the substructures of a small Temple of Satet, built over an earlier temple and incorporating a variety of architectural fragments (column drums, blocks bearing the name of Tuthmosis III, Ramesses III, etc.). The inscriptions on the solitary stump of column still standing refer to Trajan as the builder, but there was a temple on this site as early as c. 2900 B.C. The temple is being reconstructed, with financial assistance from German industrial firms, to show its successive phases.
