Faras (formerly Ancient Greek : Παχώρας, Pakhôras; Latin : Pachoras; Old Nubian: Ⲡⲁⲭⲱⲣⲁⲥ, Pakhoras [1] ) was a major city in Lower Nubia. The site of the city, on the border between modern Egypt and Sudan at Wadi Halfa Salient, was flooded by Lake Nasser in the 1960s and is now permanently underwater. Before this flooding, extensive archaeological work was conducted by a Polish archaeological team led by professor Kazimierz Michałowski.
Dating back to the A-Group period, the town was a major centre during the Meroitic period, and was the site of a major temple. During the period of ancient Egyptian control over Nubia, Faras became an Egyptian administrative centre and, located upriver from Abu Simbel, Egyptian cultural influences were prominent.
The city reached its height during the Christian period of Nubia, when Faras was the capital of the basiliskos Silko of Nobadia. When Nobatia was absorbed into Makuria, it remained the most prominent center in the north, the seat of Nobadia's eparch.
In 1909–1912, research on the site was conducted by a British expedition from the University of Oxford headed by F.Ll. Griffith. Meroitic and Christian cemeteries, as well as Egyptian temples, were uncovered. [2] At the turn of the 1960s, UNESCO organized the Nubian Salvage Campaign to preserve monuments from the area, which was to be flooded by Lake Nasser. Work in Faras, entrusted to Professor Kazimierz Michałowski, was carried out from 1960 to 1964 by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw in Cairo, which he had founded (now Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw). [3] It turned out that the hill where the mission began excavations concealed a Christian cathedral with magnificent wall paintings. The researchers distinguished three main phases of its functioning. The cathedral was founded by bishop Aetios in 620 and then twice rebuilt: by Paulos at the beginning of the 8th century and Petros I at the end of the 10th century. The subsequent buildings were called after these bishops. [2] The cathedral had been completely filled with sand thanks to which its structure and decoration were well preserved. [4] These paintings are the best surviving examples of Christian Nubian art and depict portraits of archangels, mainly Michael, various monarchs and bishops of Faras, Christian saints, Virgin Mary and a number of Biblical scenes. They were executed in tempera on dry plaster, on several layers dated from the 8th to the 14th century. Of the 169 uncovered paintings, 120 were taken down from the walls. Sixty-six of them were transported to Poland and are today on display in the Polish National Museum in Warsaw, and in Sudan National Museum in Khartoum. [3] In addition, a major pottery workshop was found.
Thanks to the discovery of the List of Bishops of Faras, it was possible to date each episcopate and thus to establish the date of some of the wall paintings. [3]
In the turbulent later years of Christian Nubia, Faras seems to have declined and the administrative centre moved to the more easily defended area of Qasr Ibrim.
Kazimierz Józef Marian Michałowski was a Polish archaeologist and Egyptologist, art historian, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, professor ordinarius of the University of Warsaw as well as the founder of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology. He coined the term "Nubiology" to refer to the study of ancient Nubia.
Makuria was a medieval Nubian kingdom in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. Its capital was Dongola in the fertile Dongola Reach, and the kingdom is sometimes known by the name of its capital.
azhagu Maris was a Medieval Arabic name for Lower Nubia, the region of the Nile around the first and second cataracts, including Aswan. Because most of the sources for Nubian history during the period are in Arabic, it is sometimes used interchangeably with the Nubian region of Nobadia. The northern section of al-Maris was part of Fatimid Upper Egypt and was semi-independent under the Kanz ad-Dawla between 1046 and 1077 AD. The Kanz ad-Dawla Nasir invaded Nubia in 1066 but was repulsed and his territory raided.
Old Dongola is a deserted Nubian town in what is now Northern State, Sudan, located on the east bank of the Nile opposite the Wadi Howar. An important city in medieval Nubia, and the departure point for caravans west to Darfur and Kordofan, from the fourth to the fourteenth century Old Dongola was the capital of the Makurian state. A Polish archaeological team has been excavating the town since 1964.
Soba is an archaeological site and former town in what is now central Sudan. Three kingdoms existed in medieval Nubia: Nobadia with the capital in Faras, Makuria with the capital in Dongola, and Alodia (Alwa) with the capital in Soba. The latter used to be the capital of the medieval Nubian kingdom of Alodia from the sixth century until around 1500. E. A. Wallis Budge identified it with a group of ruins on the Blue Nile 19 kilometres (12 mi) from Khartoum, where there are remains of a Meroitic temple that had been converted into a Christian church.
Qasr Ibrim is an archaeological site in Lower Nubia, located in the modern country of Egypt. The site has a long history of occupation, ranging from as early as the eighth century BC to AD 1813, and was an economic, political, and religious center. Originally it was a major city perched on a cliff above the Nile, but the flooding of Lake Nasser after the construction of the Aswan High Dam – with the related International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia – transformed it into an island and flooded its outskirts. Qasr Ibrim is the only major archaeological site in Lower Nubia to have survived the Aswan Dam floods. Both prior to and after the floods, it has remained a major site for archaeological investigations.
Nobatia or Nobadia was a late antique kingdom in Lower Nubia. Together with the two other Nubian kingdoms, Makuria and Alodia, it succeeded the kingdom of Kush. After its establishment in around 400, Nobadia gradually expanded by defeating the Blemmyes in the north and incorporating the territory between the second and third Nile cataract in the south. In 543, it converted to Coptic Christianity. It would then be annexed by Makuria, under unknown circumstances, during the 7th century.
The National Museum of Sudan or Sudan National Museum, abbreviated SNM, is a two-story building, constructed in 1955 and established as national museum in 1971.
Nubia is a region along the Nile river encompassing the confluence of the Blue and White Niles, and the area between the first cataract of the Nile or more strictly, Al Dabbah. It was the seat of one of the earliest civilizations of ancient Africa, the Kerma culture, which lasted from around 2500 BC until its conquest by the New Kingdom of Egypt under Pharaoh Thutmose I around 1500 BC, whose heirs ruled most of Nubia for the next 400 years. Nubia was home to several empires, most prominently the Kingdom of Kush, which conquered Egypt in the eighth century BC during the reign of Piye and ruled the country as its 25th Dynasty.
The Diocese of Faras was a Christian bishopric in Nobadia during the Middle Ages and is today a titular see of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Its seat was originally at Faras (Pakhoras). Later, its bishops sat at Qasr Ibrim.
The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw operates as an independent research institute of the University of Warsaw under the present name since 1990. It is dedicated to organizing, implementing and coordinating archaeological research, both excavations and study projects, as well as conservation, reconstruction and restoration projects, in northeastern Africa, the Near East and Cyprus. Projects include sites covering a broad chronological spectrum from the dawn of civilization through all the historic periods of the ancient Mediterranean civilizations to Late Antiquity and early Islam. Tasks beside fieldwork include comprehensive documentation of finds, archives management and publication of the results in keeping with international research standards. The PCMA manages the Research Centre in Cairo and Polish Archaeological Unit in Khartoum.
Józef Gazy (1910–1998) was a Polish artist, sculptor and restorer. Author of several monuments set in public space in various cities in Poland. In the 1960s he served as the leader of a team responsible for removal, maintenance, conservation and restoration of frescoes from the cathedral of Faras.
Bishop Petros with Saint Peter the Apostle is a Nubian Christian wall painting from the last quarter of the 10th century. Made with tempera on silt plaster using an al secco fresco technique, it depicts Petros, the bishop of Faras between 974 and 997. The anonymous work was discovered in the ruins of Faras Cathedral, an important religious centre of Nubia, in modern Sudan. Rescued from flooding when Lake Nasser was created, since 1964 it is part of the Faras Gallery of the National Museum in Warsaw.
Stefan Karol Jakobielski was a Polish historian, archaeologist, philologist, epigraphist. One of the pioneers of nubiology. He participated in archaeological research in Faras, Tell Atrib, Palmyra, Deir el-Bahari and Qasr Ibrim; directed the archaeological works at Old Dongola.
Saint Anne is a Makurian wall painting estimated to have been painted between the 8th and 9th centuries, painted al secco with tempera on plaster. The anonymous work was found at the Faras Cathedral within old Nubia in Faras Wadi Halfa present-day Sudan.
Faras Cathedral was a cathedral in the Lower Nubian city of Faras. It was the original seat of the Diocese of Faras.
The Professor Kazimierz Michałowski Faras Gallery at the National Museum in Warsaw is a permanent gallery at the National Museum in Warsaw, presenting Nubian early Christian art. The Gallery features a unique collection of wall paintings and architectural elements from the Faras Cathedral, discovered by an archeological expedition led by Professor Kazimierz Michałowski.
The Research Centre in Cairo, Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw, is the only Polish scientific research institution in Africa and the Middle East, where it has operated since 1959 in Cairo. The mission of the Research Centre is to develop and expand Polish research in the region, particularly in the Nile Valley. It is operated by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, an independent research institute of the University of Warsaw. The PCMA Cairo Research Centre is located in two buildings situated in close proximity to one another in the Cairo Heliopolis district — in antiquity the centre of a religious cult and the location of the Egypt's reputedly largest temple.
Gebel Adda was a mountain and archaeological site on the right bank of the Nubian Nile in what is now southern Egypt. The settlement on its crest was continuously inhabited from the late Meroitic period to the Ottoman period, when it was abandoned by the late 18th century. It reached its greatest prominence in the 14th and 15th centuries, when it seemed to have been the capital of late kingdom of Makuria. The site was superficially excavated by the American Research Center in Egypt just before being flooded by Lake Nasser in the 1960s, with much of the remaining excavated material, now stored in the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, remaining unpublished. Unearthed were Meroitic inscriptions, Old Nubian documents, a large amount of leatherwork, two palatial structures and several churches, some of them with their paintings still intact. The nearby ancient Egyptian rock temple of Horemheb, also known as temple of Abu Oda, was rescued and relocated.
Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw (WAUW) is a faculty of the University of Warsaw, established on 1 September 2020, through the transformation of the Institute of Archaeology, which operated as part of the now-defunct Faculty of History. The Faculty is based in the Szkoła Główna Warszawska building. It is the largest archaeological institution in Poland, comprises 17 departments and 7 laboratories with a staff of about 100. The Faculty provides education in various branches of modern archaeology and related sciences to over 1500 students from various fields of study: Ancient Egypt, Ancient America, Classical Archaeology, and Ancient Near East. The Archaeology program at the University of Warsaw is placed between 51st and 100th worldwide in Quacquarelli Symonds World University Ranking (QS)