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Adjacent to the city of Aswan, in the middle of the Nile and about 4 miles downstream from the Aswan Low Dam is Elephantine Island. At the south end of the mile long island there are ongoing excavations of the island's ancient town site, in the centre there are three Nubian villages, and the north is occupied by a large hotel complex where we stayed. The Elephantine name originates in antiquity, probably due to the shape of rocks at the southern end.

Between island inhabitants and tourists there is a lot of traffic crossing between Elephantine and the city of Aswan. I identified three distinct ferry routes, but there are also a lot of private boats in the area offering whatever taxi or sightseeing service will pay. Add to this the tourist traffic of many traditional feluccas and large Nile cruise boats for which Aswan is the upstream terminus.

The hotel, currently called the Mövenpick Aswan, has its own passenger ferry service operating 24/7 between its own dedicated docks on the mainland and the island. As our small group tour had us booked into this hotel, this was the ferry we used several times—a small boat with room for about 20 people and their bags.

A larger, vehicle ferry departed from the same dock on the mainland but arrived at a dedicated vehicle dock further north on the island. There are very limited roads on the island, mainly around the hotel complex, so I suspect this ferry’s main use is for supplying the hotel.

Further south there is a public pedestrian ferry service connecting one of the Nubian villages with Aswan.

My mini-review of the Mövenpick Aswan: Great location, saw more bird life there than on the rest of the two weeks we were on tour. The ferry works well. But the hotel/rooms/service—tired. Not up to its former glory. But overall we loved our visit to Aswan.