Photo : Vyacheslav Argenberg — CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Aswan · Gharb Soheil, west bank
Gharb Soheil Nubian village
Indigo houses, a dune behind them, and a culture that is nothing like Egyptian.
You go by boat from Aswan, twenty minutes between black granite boulders. The village lines up houses painted blue, ochre and green, patterned with geometric motifs and plates set into the render. Nubian cooking is gentler and more fragrant than Egyptian, and the language you hear in the street isn't Arabic. It's the best place in Aswan to watch the sun drop behind the dune.
The extra bit
Go up to a roof before eating: from there you see the dune, the river and the Aga Khan mausoleum on the far bank, all three at once.
Know before you go
Negotiate the boat as a single round trip, waiting time included. Some houses keep captive Nile crocodiles for photos: it's a contested practice and you can simply decline. The village lives on tourism and the soliciting is constant — but good-natured.
