SYÊNÊ
(Aswan) and ELEPHANTINE Egypt.
A double city 964 km S of Cairo, below the First Cataract. Syênê lies on the E bank of the Nile. Opposite, at
a distance of only 150 m, is the Island of Abu, whose
name the Greeks translated into Elephantine. The function of the double city had already been established in
the 1st Dynasty (3200 B.C.): Syênê as a market place
for all kind of goods coming from the S and as a quarry
of the famous Syenite stone (Pliny 5.9,59), the red
granite; and Elephantine the actual city, fortress against
invaders from Nubia and the religious center and residence of the god Khnum, lord of the Cataract.
In 1918 the discovery of Aramaic papyri from the
Persian period indicated that in the 6th c. B.C. a Jewish
colony was established in Elephantine and had its own
synagogue. Under the Ptolemies the prosperity of Elephantine depended on the increasing interest in the cult
of Isis on the Island of Philae. About this time, Eratosthenes (250 B.C.) made his visit to Syênê where, by
measuring the difference between the sun's shadows here
and in Alexandria, he was able to estimate the circumference of the earth.
During the Roman Conquest Syênê became the battle
ground for wars between the Romans and the Blemmyes
until the Roman general Maximius was forced to make
peace with them (A.D. 451). With the fall of Roman
power, Syênê became Christian and a Coptic church
was erected here. Monuments of interest are: the Temple of Isis, which lies behind Aswan in the midst of the
ancient city and dates from the time of Ptolemy III and
Ptolemy IV; the Temple of Trajan to the W of the island;
and, still farther W, the granite gateway of the Temple
of Alexander II. The local museum on the island contains some of the finds from excavations.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Jomard,
Description de l'Égypte
Antiquités (1809-22) Ch. 3
I; AEP. Weigall,
A Guide
to the Antiquities of Upper Egypt (1913) 391-419;
Porter & Moss,
Top. Bibl., V. Upper Egypt: Sites (1937)
221-58; J. B. Pritchard,
Ancient Near Eastern Texts
(1955) 492; E. Brunner-Traut & V. Hell,
Aegypten
(1966) 640ff; K. Michalowski, Aegypten (1968) 540-42;
B. Porter,
Archives from Elephantine: The Life on an
Ancient Jewish Colony (1968).
S. SHENOUDA
