Aswan from wikitravel.org

Understand

Aswan is the smallest of the three major tourist cities based on the Nile. Being the closest of the three to Africa, it has a large population of Nubian people, mostly resettled from their homeland in the area flooded by Lake Nasser. Aswan is the home of many Granite Quarries from which most of the Obelisks seen in Luxor were sourced from. Aswan was the gateway to Africa, and many raiding parties began their travel south from Aswan.