Aswan
is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital
of the governorate of the same name. It
stands on the east bank of the Nile at
the first cataract and is a busy market
and tourist center. Aswan is one of the
driest inhabited places in the world;
as of early 2001, the last rain here was
6 years ago. In Nubian settlements they
generally do not bother to roof all of
the rooms in their houses. This is identified
with the ancient city of Syene, which
is famous for providing a basis on which
Eratosthenes disputed the Flat Earth theory
and attempted to determine the circumference
of the Earth, using Syene as the originating
point and Alexandria as the terminal point
of a measured arc to make an accurate
estimate of the circumference of the Earth.
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