Nubian Villages of Aswan

The Nubian villages on Elephantine Island and the west bank are working communities, not exhibits. The architecture is the draw: flat-roofed mud-brick houses painted in blocks of cobalt, ochre and lime, with domed and vaulted rooms designed to draw hot air upward.

Visits typically include tea in a family house, a walk through the spice sellers and school, and — a genuine local tradition — meeting a household crocodile kept in a tank.

Nubia's heartland was drowned by Lake Nasser in the 1960s and around 100,000 people were resettled. The Nubian language, distinct from Arabic, is still spoken here.