Location | Aswan Governorate, Egypt |
---|---|
Region | Nubia |
Official name | Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae |
Type | Cultural |
Criteria | i, iii, vi |
Designated | 1979 (3rd session) |
Reference no. | 88 |
Region | Arab States |
The International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia was the effort to relocate 22 monuments in Lower Nubia, in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan, between 1960 and 1980. This was done in order to make way for the building of the Aswan Dam, at the Nile's first cataract (shallow rapids), a project launched following the 1952 Egyptian Revolution. [1] This project was undertaken under UNESCO leadership and a coalition of fifty countries. This process led to the creation of the World Heritage Convention in 1972, and thus the system of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. [2]
The construction of the Aswan Dam was a key objective of the new regime the Free Officers movement of 1952 in order to better control flooding, provide increased water storage for irrigation and generate hydroelectricity, [3] all of which were seen as pivotal for the industrialization of Egypt.
The building of the dam was to result in the creation of Lake Nasser, which would submerge the banks of the Nile along its entire 479 km (298 mi) length south of the dam – flooding the entire area of historical Lower Nubia. This region was home to 22 critical historical sites, including but not limited to the Abu Simbel temples; as well as the temples at Philae, Kalabsha and Amada.
It was described in the UNESCO Courier as "the greatest archaeological rescue operation of all time". [4]
In April 1979, the monuments were inscribed on the World Heritage List as the Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae, as one of the second group of properties added to the list (the first 12 had been added in 1978). [5]
In 1954, UNESCO founded the CEDAE (Centre d'Étude et de Documentation sur l'Ancienne Égypte, in English the Documentation and Study Centre for the History of the Art and Civilization of Ancient Egypt) in Cairo under the direction of Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, who was a French Egyptologist at the Louvre. The Study Centre worked on documenting over 400 private tombs, primarily through photography and photogrammetry. [6] By September of 1955, field expeditions under Dr. Ahmed Badawi were undertaken in Nubia with UNESCO permission.
By 1959, Tharwat Okasha, the Egyptian Minister of Culture sought to work alongside UNESCO to safeguard and preserve Nubian monuments. He met with the Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, René Maheu to submit his appeal, which was quickly reassured to be responded to by Director-General Vittorino Veronese. [6] A proposal was submitted to the Executive Board of UNESCO, which would later mount the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia.
This was officially began after Vittorino Veronese's appeal to the Executive Board of UNESCO on March 8, 1960. During the proposal, he described it: "It is not easy to choose between a heritage of the past and the present well-being of a people, living in need in the shadow of one of history's most splendid legacies, it is not easy to choose between temples and crops." [7] Doing so, he pointed out various concerns regarding the need to preserve Nubian cultural heritage sites in Egypt and Sudan while promoting the welfare of Egypt in relation to the proposed Aswan Dam.
The proposal was accepted, by the participation of many member states of UNESCO, though with the rule that 50% of finds would be relocated to museums in participating countries. [8] The intention of the campaign became to perform a massive archeological survey of the region, and the second was to rescue temples and sites through feats of engineering. The level of fieldwork for the project had not been previous undertaken on equivalent scale or length of time, leaving many to praise the campaign as a feat of the field of archeology. [8]
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, who remained in charge of the CEDAE (Centre d'Étude et de Documentation sur l'Ancienne Égypte, in English the Documentation and Study Centre for the History of the Art and Civilization of Ancient Egypt) in Cairo, held a leading role within the archeological survey aspect of the campaign. She was tasked with the manner in which notes would be circulated during the project, suggesting that archaeological missions working in Nubia would be required to hand over copies publications and notes produced during the project to the Centre, and abiding by the Centre's publication techniques. Excavations from Egypt would be only required to send over copies of notes, without requiring copies of publications or oversight into said publications. [9] This is theorized to be related to the post-colonial desire to fortify Egyptian identity in a cultural history following the 1952 Egyptian Revolution. [9]
The removal of temples was a project of greater difficulty. 18 of the 25 temples in the area affected by the Aswan Dam were rescued in whole or in part during the project. Sites were prioritized by importance, including the most expensive site excavated being Abu Simbel. [8]
A honorary committee was first founded by King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden to create international support for the campaign, with various world political leaders and UNESCO members as participants. [6] An official International Action Committee was established after under the UNESCO Director General in order to secure funding, service, and equipment from participating member states. [6] They decided that UNESCO would be in charge of planning the program of operations, coordination of labor, and the collection of funding. The intention was for them to serve as an intermediaries between donors and the nations of Egypt and Sudan. [6]
Egyptians contested the oversight of UNESCO, insisting that they could meet demands of donors without UNESCO involvement. [6] Despite this, UNESCO continued a significant amount of oversight throughout the duration of the campaign. [10]
The construction of Lake Nasser, as well as the excavations required in the Nubia campaign, involved the relocation of many Nubians native to the region. First in 1902 due to the construction of the Aswan Lower Dam, then in both 1912 and 1933 due to the rising water levels, and a fourth time after the creation of the Aswan High Dam. The forced relocation stripped many native Nubians of their ancestral homelands, with the compensation of unsuitable homes for living and agriculture. This forced many Nubians to immigrate to cities in Egypt and later Sudan. [1]
A timeline of the key dates of the campaign is shown below:
Diplomacy | Relocation work | Aswan Dam | |
---|---|---|---|
6 April 1959 | Egypt appeals to UNESCO | ||
24 October 1959 | Sudan appeals to UNESCO | ||
9 January 1960 | Work on the Aswan High Dam officially begun | ||
8 March 1960 | Director-General of Unesco appeals to the international community | ||
Summer 1960 | Temples of Taffeh, Dabod and Kertassi dismantled by the Egyptian Antiquities Service | ||
Nov. Dec. 1962 | Unesco's General Conference creates Executive Committee for the International Campaign | ||
1962–63 | Temple of Kalabsha dismantled, transferred and re-erected | ||
Spring 1964 | Work begins on transfer of Abu Simbel temples | ||
14 May 1964 | Diversion of Nile to feed the turbines of the High Dam | ||
September 1964 | Lake Nasser begins to fill | ||
22 September 1968 | Completion of the Abu Simbel operation | ||
6 November 1968 | UNESCO launches International Campaign to save the Temples of Philae | ||
1970 | Construction of Aswan High Dam completed | ||
1972 | Work begins on Philae rescue operation; monuments to be transferred to nearby island of Agilkia | ||
May 1974 | Cofferdam around the island of Philae is completed and water is pumped out | ||
April 1977 | Foundations of the Philae monuments ready on the island of Agilkia and reconstruction work begins | ||
August 1979 | Completed at Agilkia | ||
10 March 1980 | Overall project completion |
The campaign was primarily led by Tharwat Okasha, [11] the Egyptian Minister of Culture, René Maheu, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, and Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, French Egyptologist at the Louvre. [12]
The number of relocated monuments have been stated as 22 [13] or 24 [14] depending on how an individual site is defined. Only one archaeological site in Lower Nubia, Qasr Ibrim, remains in its original location and above water; previously a cliff-top settlement, it was transformed into an island. [15] [16] The relocated sites can be grouped as follows:
The list of relocated monuments is as follows:
Historical | Relocation | Current | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Monument | Image [17] | Location | Period | Date | Led by | Image | Location | ||
Abu Simbel (two temples) | 65m below current location | 13th century BCE | 1964–68 | Coalition | 65m above historical location, in artificial hill | ||||
Philae temple complex | Philae Island | 300 BCE – 100 AD | 1972–79 | Coalition | Agilkia Island | ||||
Temple of Amada | Amada | 1400s BCE | France | New Amada | |||||
Temple of Derr | Derr | 1200s BCE | Egypt | ||||||
Tomb of Pennut at Aniba | Aniba | Egypt | |||||||
Temple of Kalabsha (except gate, see below) | Kalabsha | 30 BCE | 1962–63 | Germany | New Kalabsha | ||||
Temple of Gerf Hussein | Gerf Hussein | 1200s BCE | Egypt | ||||||
Kiosk of Qertassi | Qertassi | 0 – 100 AD | 1960 | Egypt | |||||
Temple of Beit el-Wali | Beit el-Wali | 1200s BCE | Egypt | ||||||
Temple of Dakka | Dakka | 200 BCE – 100 AD | Egypt | New Wadi es-Sebua | |||||
Temple of Maharraqa | Maharraqa | 0 – 100 AD | Egypt | ||||||
Temples of Wadi es-Sebua | Wadi es-Sebua | 1400–1200 BCE | Egypt | ||||||
Horemheb Temple at Abu Oda | Abu Oda | Nubian Museum, Aswan | |||||||
Temple of Aksha | Aksha | 1200s BCE | National Museum of Sudan | ||||||
The temples in the fortified town of Buhen | Buhen | 1800s BCE | |||||||
The temples at Semna East and West fortresses | Semna | 1900s BCE | |||||||
Temple of Debod | Debod | 100s BCE | 1960 | Spain | Madrid, Spain | ||||
Temple of Dendur | Dendur | 23 BCE | United States | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, United States | |||||
Temple of Taffeh | Taffeh | 25 BCE – 14 CE | 1960 | Netherlands | Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, the Netherlands | ||||
Temple of Ellesyia | Ellesyia | 1400s BCE | Italy | Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy | |||||
Kalabsha Gate | Kalabsha | 30 BCE | 1962–63 | Germany | Egyptian Museum of Berlin, Germany – part of the Temple of Kalabsha |
One scheme to save the Abu Simbel temples was based on an idea by William MacQuitty to build a clear freshwater dam around the temples, with the water inside kept at the same height as the Nile. There were to be underwater viewing chambers. In 1962 the idea was made into a proposal by architects Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry and civil engineer Ove Arup. [18] They considered that raising the temples ignored the effect of erosion of the sandstone by desert winds. However, the proposal, though acknowledged to be extremely elegant, was rejected. [19]
The salvage of the Abu Simbel temples began in 1964 by a multinational team of archeologists, engineers and skilled heavy equipment operators working together under the UNESCO banner; it cost some US$40 million (equivalent to $632 million in 2024). Between 1964 and 1968, the entire site was carefully cut into large blocks (up to 30 tons, averaging 20 tons), dismantled, lifted and reassembled in a new location 65 metres higher and 200 metres back from the river, in one of the greatest challenges of archaeological engineering in history. [20] Some structures were even saved from under the waters of Lake Nasser. [21]
In 1902, the Aswan Low Dam was completed on the Nile River by the British. This threatened to submerge many ancient landmarks, including the temple complex of Philae. The height of the dam was raised twice, from 1907 to 1912 and from 1929 to 1934, and the island of Philae was nearly always flooded. In fact, the only times that the complex was not underwater was when the dam's sluices were open from July to October. During this period it was proposed that the temples be relocated, piece by piece, to nearby islands, such as Bigeh or Elephantine. However, the temples' foundations and other architectural supporting structures were strengthened instead. Although the buildings were physically secure, the island's attractive vegetation and the colors of the temples' reliefs were washed away. Also, the bricks of the Philae temples soon became encrusted with silt and other debris carried by the Nile. With each inundation the situation worsened and in the 1960s the island was submerged up to a third of the buildings all year round. [22]
The work began in 1972, and in 1974 a large coffer dam was built, [23] constructed of two rows of steel plates between which a 1 million cubic metres (35 million cubic feet ) of sand was tipped. Any water that seeped through was pumped away. Next the monuments were cleaned and measured, by using photogrammetry, a method that enables the exact reconstruction of the original size of the building blocks that were used by the ancients. Then every building was dismantled into about 40,000 units from 2 to 25 tons, and then transported to the nearby Island of Agilkia, [23] situated on higher ground some 500 metres (1,600 ft) away. Foundations of the Philae monuments were ready on Agilkia by April 1977, and the transfer itself took place between 1977 and 1980. [24]
In addition to participating directly in the high profile salvage operations of Abu Simbel and Philae, the Egyptian Antiquities Organization carried out the rescue of many smaller temples and monuments alone using their own financial and technical means. [25] As early as 1960 Egypt had started to rescue the temples of Taffeh (or Taffa), Debod and Qertassi, followed by Dakka and Maharraqa in 1961 and Dendur in 1962. The temples of Wadi es-Sebua and Beit el Wali and the rock tomb of Pennut at Aniba were moved in 1964 with the support of a US grant, whilst the subsequent re-erection was carried out with Egyptian resources. The Temple of Derr was rescued in 1965, and the temples of Gerf Husein, the chapel of Abu Oda (cut out of rock), the chapels of Qasr Ibrim (the rest of which has remained in situ), and many rock inscriptions and drawings, were also saved. [26]
Early in the campaign, the West German authorities offered to dismantle and re-erect the Temple of Kalabsha, the largest temple in all of Lower Nubia, with costs paid by West Germany. [27] Germany's interest in making a significant contribution stemmed from its Egyptological heritage, including Lepsius' milestone work Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien , as more specifically the work of Franz Christian Gau who had documented Kalabsha as early as 1819. [28]
In addition to the work of French archaeologists at Abu Simbel, the French government provided significant technical and financial support for the removal of the Temple of Amada. In 1964, the front portion of the temple was dismantled and transported on rails by the U.A.R. Antiquities Service. French archeologists then excavated the rest of the temple with the same railway system. [29]
Amada was considered "one of the most distinctive and best preserved examples of the art of the 18th dynasty." [30]
Given the impending flooding of a wide area, Egypt and Sudan encouraged archaeological teams from across the world to carry out work as broadly as possible. Approximately 40 teams from across the world came to the region, to explore an area of approximately 500 km in length. [31]
In addition to the relocation operations, many countries participated in excavation and preservation work. Some of this work took place at the CEDAE (Centre d'Étude et de Documentation sur l'Ancienne Égypte, in English the Documentation and Study Centre for the History of the Art and Civilization of Ancient Egypt), founded in Cairo in 1955 to coordinate the academic efforts: [32]
The table below summarizes the contributions towards the project by the global coalition of nations. The vast majority of these contributions funded the operations at Abu Simbel and Philae. [35]
Contributor | USD (thousands) | Notes |
---|---|---|
Afghanistan | 2 | Government contribution |
Algeria | 105 | |
Austria | 37 | |
Belgium | 82 | |
China | 2 | |
Cuba | 160 | |
Cyprus | 5 | |
Denmark | 15 | |
France | 1,268 | |
West Germany | 678 | |
Ghana | 49 | |
Greece | 30 | |
Holy See | 35 | |
Indonesia | 10 | |
Iraq | 63 | |
Italy | 1,176 | |
Japan | 190 | |
Cambodia | 5 | |
Kuwait | 105 | |
Lebanon | 40 | |
Libya | 26 | |
Luxembourg | 2 | |
Malaysia | 14 | |
Mali | 2 | |
Malta | 0.2 | |
Monaco | 10 | |
Morocco | 4 | |
Nepal | 1 | |
Netherlands | 557 | |
Nigeria | 128 | |
Pakistan | 130 | |
Philippines | 10 | |
Qatar | 60 | |
Saudi Arabia | 8 | |
Sierra Leone | 3 | |
Spain | 525 | |
Sri Lanka | 1 | |
Sudan | 2 | |
Sweden | 500 | |
Switzerland | 332 | |
Syria | 152 | |
Togo | 1 | |
Turkey | 3 | |
Uganda | 6 | |
United Kingdom | 213 | |
United States | 18,501 | |
Yugoslavia | 226 | |
India (in kind) | 415 | |
Romania (in kind) | 5 | |
Total Government contribution | 25,893 | |
Miscellaneous private contributions | 36 | Private contributions |
American Committee for the Preservation of Abu Simbel | 1,251 | |
African Emergency Programme | 21 | |
Belgium exhibition proceeds | 154 | |
Canada exhibition proceeds | 4 | |
France exhibition proceeds | 459 | |
West Germany exhibition proceeds | 1,208 | |
Japan exhibition proceeds | 1,089 | |
Norway exhibition proceeds | 6 | |
Sweden exhibition proceeds | 29 | |
UK exhibition proceeds | 1,601 | |
USSR exhibition proceeds | 1,602 | |
Sovereign Order of Malta | 1 | |
Egypt Tourist Tax | 1,879 | Other Income |
Interest and exchange adjustments | 1,408 | |
World Food Programme | 3,518 | |
Philatelic revenue and income from Philae Medals | 113 | |
Grand total | 40,273 |
In April 1979, the monuments were inscribed on the World Heritage List as the "Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae". The inscribed area includes ten sites, five of which were relocated (all south of the city of Aswan), and five of which remain in their original position (near to the city of Aswan): [36]
Relocated sites, south of the Aswan Low Dam [36]
Sites in their original location, north of the Aswan Low Dam [36] – although these five sites are grouped within the "Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae", they are neither Nubian, nor between Abu Simbel and Philae
Aswan is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate.
Abu Simbel is a historic site comprising two massive rock-cut temples in the village of Abu Simbel, Aswan Governorate, Upper Egypt, near the border with Sudan. It is located on the western bank of Lake Nasser, about 230 km (140 mi) southwest of Aswan. The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC, during the 19th Dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Ramesses II. Their huge external rock relief figures of Ramesses II have become iconic. His wife, Nefertari, and children can be seen in smaller figures by his feet. Sculptures inside the Great Temple commemorate Ramesses II's heroic leadership at the Battle of Kadesh.
Lake Nasser is a large reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It was created by the construction of the Aswan High Dam and is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Before its creation, the project faced opposition from Sudan as it would encroach on land in the northern part of the country, where many Nubian people lived who would have to be resettled. In the end Sudan's land near the area of Lake Nasser was mostly flooded by the lake. The lake has become an important economic resource in Egypt, improving agriculture and touting robust fishing and tourism industries.
Elephantine is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological digs on the island became a World Heritage Site in 1979, along with other examples of Upper Egyptian architecture, as part of the "Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae".
Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, and all its modern population, were relocated as part of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia; Qasr Ibrim is the only major archaeological site which was neither relocated nor submerged. The intensive archaeological work conducted prior to the flooding means that the history of the area is much better known than that of Upper Nubia. According to David Wengrow, the A-Group Nubian polity of the late 4th millenninum BCE is poorly understood since most of the archaeological remains are submerged underneath Lake Nasser.
Philae Island was an island near the expansive First Cataract of the Nile in Upper Egypt. Due to the building of the Aswan Dam, the island is today submerged under Lake Nasser. Prior to the submerging, the Philae temple complex which had been built on the island, was moved to Agilkia Island.
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.
The Temple of Debod is an ancient Nubian temple currently located in Madrid, Spain. The temple was originally erected in the early 2nd century BC 15 km (9.3 mi) south of Aswan, Egypt. The Egyptian government donated the temple to Spain in 1968 as a sign of gratitude for their participation in the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia. It was dismantled, transported, and rebuilt in the Parque de la Montaña in 1970–1972. It is one of the few works of ancient Egyptian architecture relocated outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in Spain.
Faras 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.
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.
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt was a French Egyptologist. She was the author of many books on Egyptian art and history and was also known for her role in the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia from flooding caused by the Aswan Dam.
The Temple of Taffeh is an ancient Roman Egyptian temple currently located in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, the Netherlands. The temple was originally built between 25 BCE and 14 CE as part of the Roman fortress known as Taphis, in Egypt. The Egyptian government donated the temple to the Netherlands as a sign of gratitude for their participation in the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia. It is one of the few works of ancient Egyptian architecture relocated outside Egypt and the only one of its kind in the Netherlands.
The Temple of Kalabsha is an ancient Egyptian temple that was originally located at Bab al-Kalabsha, approximately 50 km south of Aswan.
The temples of Wadi es-Sebua, is a pair of New Kingdom Egyptian temples, including one speos temple constructed by the 19th Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II, in Lower Nubia.
The Temple of Amada, is one of the oldest Egyptian Temples in Nubia. It was constructed during the 18th Dynasty by Pharaoh Thutmose III. It is one of the oldest Egyptian buildings still present along Lake Nasser. In total, three generations contributed to building the temple. Minor modifications continued into the 19th Dynasty. The temple was dedicated to Amun-Ra and Horakhty-Ra.
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.
Agilkia Island is an island in the reservoir of the Old Aswan Dam along the Nile River in southern Egypt; it is the present site of the relocated ancient Egyptian temple complex of Philae. Partially to completely flooded by the old dam's construction in 1902, the Philae complex was dismantled and relocated to Agilkia island, as part of a wider UNESCO project related to the 1960s construction of the Aswan High Dam and the eventual flooding of many sites posed by its large reservoir upstream. To allow Agilkia island to accominate the relocated temple, the island was leveled to match the old contours of Philae island as best as possible, which required the removal of the top of the island.
The Temple of Ellesyia is an ancient Egyptian rock-cut temple originally located near the site of Qasr Ibrim. It was built during the 18th Dynasty by the Pharaoh Thutmosis III. The temple was dedicated to the deities Amun, Horus and Satis. Tuthmosis III had a small temple carved into the rock at Ellesiya, not far from Abu Simbel, dedicated to Horus of Miam and Satet. The temple is only accessible from the river. The interior features an inverted T-shaped structure, consisting of a corridor and two side chambers. On the walls, scenes depict offerings made by the king to the Egyptian and Nubian gods. The figures face the back wall, where statues of Horus, Satet, and Tuthmosis III on a throne are carved in half-relief.
New Amada is a promontory located near Aswan in Egypt.
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.
... Qasr Ibrim is the only in situ site left in Lower Nubia since the flooding of the Nile valley
Qasr Ibrim is critically important in a number of ways. It is the only site in Lower Nubia that remained above water after the completion of the Aswan high dam.