Sehel Island () is located in the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...

, about southwest of

Aswan Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the ...

in southern

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

. It is a large island, and is roughly halfway between the city and the upstream

Aswan Low Dam The Aswan Low Dam or Old Aswan Dam is a gravity masonry buttress dam on the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt. The dam was built at the former first cataract of the Nile, and is located about 1000 km up-river and 690 km (direct distance) sou ...

Geography

Sehel Island, spanning 3/4 the width of the Nile, is the primary large island below the Nile's

First Cataract The Cataracts of the Nile are shallow lengths (or whitewater rapids) of the Nile river, between Khartoum and Aswan, where the surface of the water is broken by many small boulders and stones jutting out of the river bed, as well as many rocky ...

and the Aswan Low Dam (1902). Following downriver, the next major islands after Sehel are: Saluga, Ambunarti, Elephantine, and then

Kitchener's Island El Nabatat Island or Kitchener's Island,State Information Service of Egypt ...

. There are a dozen smaller islands scattered around them.

Archaeological artefacts

The island was known in ancient tiles as ''Setet'', and there are many archaeological sites, including sacred places, such as the temple of

Anuket Anuket was the ancient Egyptian goddess of the cataracts of the Nile and Lower Nubia in general, worshipped especially at Elephantine near the First Cataract. Etymology In ancient Egyptian, she was known as Anuket, Anaka, or Anqet. Her name ...

, the Egyptian

water goddess A water deity is a deity in mythology associated with water or various bodies of water. Water deities are common in mythology and were usually more important among civilizations in which the sea or ocean, or a great river was more important. Anoth ...

, and goddess of the Nile's cataracts. Seheil was home to a

stone quarry In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's o ...

for

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

used during various Ancient Egyptian eras, and there are many

inscription Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the w ...

s in the island's granite boulders. These inscriptions were usually left by travellers marking either the start or end of their journey to

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

. There are several famous inscriptions that record ancient historical events. One is the Famine Stela, which is of Greco-Roman origin, but claims to record events from the time of

Djoser Djoser (also read as Djeser and Zoser) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty during the Old Kingdom, and was the founder of that epoch. He is also known by his Hellenized names Tosorthros (from Manetho) and Sesorthos (from Eusebiu ...

and Imhotep.

Gallery

Image:Sehel enscriptions.jpg, Sehel Inscriptions, in island's

boulders. Image:Sehel-steleFamine (cropped).jpg, The Famine Stela, Sehel Island.

References

External links

Archaeological sites in Egypt River islands of Egypt Islands of the Nile History of Nubia Aswan {{Egypt-geo-stub