Upper Egypt Travel Guide — Things to Do, Food & Hotels
strip of land on the Nile valley between Nubia and Lower Egypt
About Upper Egypt
Most of Egypt sits on limestone bedrock, so this was the usual building material. But upriver south of Esna this changes to sandstone, which was used for local building, but was also worth transporting long distances because you could decorate it with much finer yet hard-wearing inscriptions. The sandstone pinches the upper Nile into a narrow valley, so the fertile strip becomes a corridor. The river current is stronger but it is still navigable by sail and by thrashing the slaves to row harder upstream—until you reach Aswan. Here a bar of granite crosses the valley to create the "First Cataract", the lowest of a series of rapids. The Nile cannot be used for long-distance transport above there so the upriver regions were less important. Still the granite was valuable so it was quarried and
Upper Egypt Travel Guide Sections
Our comprehensive guide covers 12 sections including: