Assouan

Assouan (anc. Syenc), or Eswan, is a town in Upper Egypt on the right bank of the Nile. It contains but few traces of its ancient greatness, but the interesting islands of Philae and Elephantine are close by, as are the great quarries from which the Syenite was hewn to build the temples and palaces of Egypt. It is the southermost city of Egypt proper, and was conspicuous as the starting-point of the Khartoum Expedition in 1884, and the post immediately threatened by the Mahdist forces.