Basic info :
Population : 200,000

Aswan (formerly spelled Assuan; Egyptian: Swenet (literally meaning "trade"); Coptic: Swān; Greek: Συήνη Syene; Arabic: أسوان‎ Aswān; Spanish: Asuلn) is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate. It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist center. It contains the island of Elephantine.

Aswan is one of the driest inhabited places in the world; as of early 2001, the last rain there was six years earlier. As of 31 March 2008, the last rainfall was a thunderstorm on May 13, 2006. In Nubian settlements, they generally do not bother to roof all of the rooms in their houses.

The Nile is nearly 3000 yards wide above Aswan. From this frontier town to the northern extremity of Egypt it flows for more than 750 miles without bar or cataract. The voyage from Aswan to Alexandria usually occupied between 21 and 28 days in favorable weather.