Syene

Syene (Hebrew Seveneh, meaning "opening" or possibly related to trade routes) was a frontier town of Egypt on the southern border with Ethiopia (Cush), situated on the eastern bank of the Nile at the first cataract. It corresponds to modern Aswan, one of Egypt's most southerly cities. Syene is mentioned twice in Ezekiel's prophecies against Egypt: God declares that Egypt shall be laid waste "from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia" (Ezekiel 29:10; 30:6), using the phrase as a merism expressing the full length of the land from north to south. The region was famed in antiquity for its red granite quarries, from which the Egyptians cut obelisks and colossal statues; the granite is still called Syenite after the ancient city. Syene also marked the point where ancient geographers noted the sun's rays fell directly vertical at the summer solstice, a fact used by Eratosthenes in the third century BC to calculate the circumference of the earth.