Asyut
-
General Information
Other Name: -, District: Asyut , State: Upper Region, Egypt
Area: 0 -
Languages Spoken: Arabic
Long Distance Code: -
Importance: -
Best Time to Visit: - to - and -
International Access: -
Description
Asyut, is the capital of the modern Asyut Governorate, Egypt.Asyut is the largest town in Upper Egypt and lies about 234 miles south of Cairo.Asyut has a large Christian community and is the region''s most important agricultural center, dealing in cotton and grain. It also has some carpet manufacturing industry. It is also the home of the third largest university in Egypt.Location
234 miles south of Cairo.Climate
-
To the north of the ancient necropolis a larger Arab cemetery extends far into the plain with hundreds of domed tombs set ami palms.
Continuing up the hill, passing a smal Coptic rock chapel and rounding a spur of the hill, we reach a point from which there is a wide view of the extensive rang of hills along the eastern edge of th Western Desert.Asyut has an interesting little Museum containing the collection of antiquities assembled between 1910 and 1914 by a wealthy Asyut citizen, Sayyid Pasha Khashaba, from excavations in the ancient necropolises of Asyut and Meir. The collection includes wooden sarcophagi, including some with fine colored door ornaments and a mummiform sarcophagus of granite; large quantities of grave goods, in particular domestic and agricultural equipment; a limestone group depicting a princely couple (from Meir; sixth Dynasty); fine reliefs from a 19th Dynasty tomb,and a famous over-life-size statue of an official named luni holding a chapel with the image.
The view from the Rock Tombs is very fine. To the left, lower down, is the Arab cemetery; in the fertile plain is the widely spreading town with its minarets and palms and the lbharimiya Canal with its busy boat traffic; and in the distance can be seen the edge of the desert. A still more extensive and more attractive view can be enjoyed from the tombs higher up the hill. Here can be seen three adjoining tombs dating from the Heracleopolitan period of the Middle Kingdom.