Nubian village on the Nile bank on the Elephantine Island. Elephantine, island is in the Nile opposite Aswān city. The archaeological sites on the island were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 the Elephantine Island archaeological site contains ruins spanning from the Old Kingdom up to the Roman and even Coptic eras. There was a Jewish community there until about the 4th century BCE. It originated as an a Persian outpost with Jewish mercenaries. It was an important community, they even built their own temple for a while. But the community was destroyed and the Jews migrated to Alexandria. The Elephantine Island scrolls are a collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts dating from the 5th century BCE. They come from a Jewish community at Elephantine, then called ꜣbw. The dry soil of Upper Egypt preserved the documents. Hundreds of these Elephantine papyri span a period of 100 years.