THE AGA KHAN MAUSOLEUM

A felucca ride brings you to the Mausoleum, atop a hill at the southern end of the West Bank. Aga Khan - the late leader of the Ismaili sect - spent every winter in Aswan and was buried here in this magnificent mausoleum modeled on the Fatimid tombs in Cairo. The interior shrine of the Mausoleum is made of marble.

THE MONASTRY OF ST SIMEON (DEIR AMBA SAMA'AN)

Ride a camel or climb to the ruins of the Coptic Monastery of St. Simeon, originally founded in the 7th century AD. Rebuilt in the 10th century, the monastery was a base for missionary monks who converted the Nubians to Christianity. Frescoes of the Apostles still remain in the roofless Basilica.

THE TOMBS OF THE NOBLES

The northern hills of the West Bank are filled with the rock-hewn tombs of princes from the Old Kingdom to the Roman period. At night they are illuminated with hidden spotlights and can be seen clearly from the east bank of the Nile at Aswan. On the inside, the tombs are decorated with vivid wall pictures depicting scenes of everyday life. Hieroglyphic biographies and inscriptions tell of the noblemen's journeys into Africa.

THE UNFINISHED OBELISK

The Unfinished Obelisk, measuring 41 metres in length and 4 metres square at the base, still lies where a crack was discovered as it was being hewn from the rock. Possibly intended as a companion to the Lateran Obelisk originally at Karnak, now in Rome, it would have measured 120 feet and weighed over 1150 tons when complete. It is a concrete example of how the ancient Egyptians went about fashioning these graceful monuments. Nearby is the Fatimid Cemetery, consisting of hundreds of mud-brick tombs dating back to the 9th century AD.