Elephantine (/ˌɛlɪfænˈtaɪniː, -ˈtiː-/ EL-if-an-TY-nee, -⁠TEE-;[2] Ancient Egyptian: 𓍋𓃀𓅱𓃰, romanized: ꜣbw; Egyptian Arabic: جزيرة الفنتين; Greek: Ἐλεφαντίνη Elephantíne; Coptic: (Ⲉ)ⲓⲏⲃ (e)iēb, Coptic pronunciation: [jæb]) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt.

[4] It was an excellent defensive site for a fort, making it a natural cargo transfer point for river trade.

Historical texts from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt mention the mother of Amenemhat I, founder of the Twelfth Dynasty, being from[10] the Elephantine Egyptian nome Ta-Seti.

[24] Ongoing excavations by the German Archaeological Institute at the town have uncovered many findings on display in the Aswan Museum located on the island, including a mummified ram of Khnum.

The Greeks formed the Ptolemaic dynasty during their 300-year rule over Egypt (305–30 BC) and maintained the ancient religious customs and traditions while often associating the Egyptian deities with their own.

In the Middle Kingdom, many officials, such as the local governors Sarenput I or Heqaib III, dedicated statues and shrines to the temple.

A nilometer was a structure for measuring the Nile River's clarity and the water level during the annual flood season.

The other nilometer is a rectangular basin located at the island's southern tip, near the temple of Khnum and opposite the Old Cataract Hotel.

[4][27] Elephantine was the dwelling place of Khnum, the ram-headed god of the cataracts, who guarded and controlled the waters of the Nile from caves beneath the island.

[27] The Elephantine papyri and ostraca are caches of legal documents and letters written in Imperial Aramaic dating to sometime in the 5th century BC.

[30][31] Following the 587 BCE destruction of Jerusalem, some Judean refugees traveled south and, in what may be called an “exodus in reverse,” settled on Elephantine.

They maintained their own temple (the House of Yahweh) in which sacrifices were offered, evincing polytheistic beliefs, which functioned alongside that of Khnum.

[28] There is bias that surrounds the Jewish and Egyptian interactions that occurred on Elephantine, but the findings show that there was often culture interchange.

[34] In 410 BC, the Jewish temple, the House of Yahweh, was burned down by a Persian military commander after he was bribed by Khnum priests.

Ongoing excavations by the German Archaeological Institute at the island's ancient town site have uncovered many findings that are now on display in the museum, including a mummified ram of Khnum.