Known to the Ancient Egyptians as Abu or Yebu, Elephantine stands at the border between Egypt and Nubia. It was a natural transshipping point for river trade, and, as an island, also provided an excellent defensive site for a city. According to Egyptian mythology, here was the dwelling place of Khnum, the ram-headed god of the cataracts, who controlled the waters of the Nile from caves beneath the island. There are records of a temple to Khnum here as early as the third dynasty, and most of the southern tip of the island is taken up by the ruins of the later temple to him that was completely rebuilt in the Late Period (30th dynasty).
Ongoing excavations at the town by the German Archaeological Institute have uncovered many finds, including a mummified ram of Khnum, that are located in the Elephantine Museum. Artifacts have been found on Elephantine dating back to predynastic times. The oldest ruins still standing on the island are a granite step pyramid from the third dynasty and a small shrine, built for the local sixth-dynasty nomarch Hekayib.
A rare calendar, known as the Elephantine Calendar, dating to the reign of Thutmose III, was found in fragments. Also on the island is one of the oldest nilometers in Egypt, last reconstructed in Roman times and still in use as late as the 19th century AD. The 90 steps that lead down to the river are marked with Arabic, Roman, and hieroglyphic numerals, and inscriptions carved deep into the rock during the 17th dynasty can be seen at the water's edge.
Prior to 1822, there were temples of Thutmose III and Amenhotep III, both of which were relatively intact, but they were destroyed in that year by the Ottoman government.
The Elephantine papyri are caches of legal documents and letters written in Aramaic, which document the community of Jewish soldiers stationed here during the Persian occupation of Egypt. They maintained their own temple to Yahweh, functioning alongside that of Khnum. The Jewish community at Elephantine was probably founded as a military installation in about 650 BCE during Manasseh's reign, to assist Pharaoh Psammetichus I in his Nubian campaign. The documents cover the period 495-399 BCE.