Aswan - Elephantine Island 
The verdant island of Elephantine (1,650yd/1,500m long, 550yd/500m wide), with its luxuriant growth of palms, known in Arabic as Geziret Aswan or El-Gesira ("the Island") for short, can be reached by boat (preferably a felucca) in a few minutes. It is one of Aswan's principal tourist attractions, and accordingly is in danger of losing its quiet idyllic charm. On the island are two picturesque Nubian villages, the inhabitants of which still speak Nubian and preserve their national traditions.
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Felucca Trip
A felucca trip round Elephantine is full of interest. Some 550yd/500m south, near the right bank of the Nile, is a small islet on which can be seen a number of "potholes", gouged out of the rock and worn smooth by the Nile flood.
Kitchener's Island
Between Elephantine and the left bank is the island of El-Atrun or Kitchener's Island, more recently known as Botanical Island. Once the property of Lord Kitchener, it now belongs to the State, and with its luxuriant abundance of plants and flowers is one of the great attractions of Aswan.
Views of the First Cataract
From the higher parts of Elephantine, particularly from the Hill of Kom, there are fine views of the rocks of the First Cataract some brown and some black, some rugged and some smooth between which the Nile pursues a tranquil course.
Kalabsha Kiosk
Southwest of the site of the ancient town of Elephantine, at the southern tip of the island, is the so called Kalabsha Kiosk, a structure in the style of a temple of the Ptolemaic period put together from fragments of the Kalabsha Temple left here during the operation for the rescue of the Nubian temples, in the course of which the stones of the Kalabsha Temple were temporarily stored on Elephantine.
