It is the region of the cataract, where the innundation was believed to originate,„the first and foremost nome.of upper Egypt. Anything south of Aswan was Nubia, in ancient times known as Wawat or Kush. Aswan's strategic importance was recognized from early times and its main city on the cetitral island of Elephantine was duly fortified. The fear of invasion by Nubian tribes, who were notoriously aggressive, was constantly present in the mind of the Egyptians, Countless -south-bound expeditions, military and commercial, set out from Aswan, and its beautiful granite rocks, spotted from afar, indicated to the returning crews that they were approaching home.
In the course of its history, Egypt penetrated Nubia on many occasions. For long periods of time Nubia was subservient to Egypt. Egyptian temples were built in Nubia, mighty forts were constructed in the region of Wadi Halfa, and a separate Egyptian administration was instituted, under the "King's Son of Kush", in order to maintain order among the Nubian tribes and ensure the flow of the Nubian tribute to the royal court. Yet Aswan always remained the formal frontier.
On the eastern bank of the Nile were the principal granite quarries. Practically all the granite which served for the monumental construction of obelisks, statues, pyramid casings, shrines and gateways originated in those quarries. A famous, unfinished obelisk still lies in its granite bed in the quarr , left behind because of a severe aw m e stone. From the evience of the Aswan obéIïšk,-weEve a góodidea regarding the methods of extraction of this hardest of stones and its transportation to the river. An important relief at Deir el-Bahari (Western Luxor) indicates how it was further transported in river barges, towed by a fleet of boats. Further south, at Wadi Shellal, there is an additional unfinished example of granite extraction in the form of an osiride statue.