HiddenMysteries: Sending out an SOS

A plea goes out to rescue Qasr Ibrim, the sole in situ archaeological site remaining among Nubian monuments. Nevine El-Aref reports

Isolated on a high hillock in the middle of Lake Nasser, the monumental complex of Qasr Ibrim displays a collection of archaeological remnants of Egypt's various historical epochs that once witnessed a unique civilisation.

Qasr Ibrim was once an eagle's nest over Lower Nubia but is now an island, or at times a peninsula, on the east bank of the artificial Lake Nasser which came into being after the building of the Aswan High Dam in the early 1960's. The site was intermittently inhabited from as early as the Middle Kingdom until the 1840's. It also functioned as a military stronghold and a destination of religious pilgrimage for various armies and religious denominations.

Throughout its 3,000-year history, Qasr Ibrim has lain on the border territory between Egypt and her southern neighbours. Control of the area around Ibrim fluctuated with the changing political situations to the north and south. The fortress of Qasr Ibrim, situated high above the Nile, provided a secure military base for whoever was the controlling power at the time from which to watch over traffic on the river, and to oversee the nomads who roamed the Eastern Desert, an ever-present threat to the settled communities along the Nile. From the earliest feature so far discovered on the site -- a length of massive fortification wall from about 1000 BC through to the 16th century AD Ottoman garrison which occupied and repaired the fortress to guard their southern frontier -- Qasr Ibrim's military importance has always been paramount. Alongside its military role, however, Qasr Ibrim also functioned as a religious centre early in its history, and a centre of pilgrimage in both pagan and Christian times. Pharaonic and Roman temples have been discovered, and even today the site is dominated by the shell of a Christian cathedral which dwarfs the surrounding remains.

Since its construction during Pharaonic times as a military garrison, Qasr Ibrim, or PER-MIT as it was known during that time, has played a major political and military role, for almost 3,000 years in fact, in the surveillance of Egypt's southern borders and in preventing several military attacks from the south. It also had an economic importance as it was one of Egypt's main trade centres.

The Middle Kingdom fortress of King Senusert III is the oldest monument found on the island along with a number of New Kingdom chapels of the 18th dynasty kings Thutmose III, Amenhotep II and Queen Hatshepsut. It also houses a mud brick temple of the 25th dynasty Nubian ruler Taharqa and several residential houses of the same epoch.

During the Graeco-Roman era, no less than six mud brick temples dedicated to Isis, Amun and other ancient Egyptian deities were built along with a small military garrison and dormitory for soldiers. The name of the island had also been changed to PREMIS.

When Christianity took roots in Egypt, PHRIM, as the Copts pronounced it, became the seat of the Coptic Patriarchy where an enormous cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary was constructed during the sixth century. Taharqa Temple was also been transformed into a Coptic church. When the Ottomans invaded the island in the 16th century, they changed the name of the island into Ibrim, built a small mosque and left some Bosnian soldiers to protect their new territory. They intermarried with the Nubians and formed their own families. Down the ages the island has been transformed into a small town filled with temples, a fortress, colossi, houses, a mosque, cathedral and necropolis.

In the 1960s when Egypt decided to build the High Dam and called for the salvage operation of Nubian monuments, all temples were relocated to another, safer location except the monuments of Qasr Ibrim which was built on top of an 80-metre tall rock formation above the Nile's level, thus preventing its inundation by the flow of Lake Nasser after the completion of the dam.

Such remarkable preservation on site has recently been threatened by the high water levels of Lake Nasser associated with construction in Toshka.

Almost 60 per cent of the island has been inundated and water leaks into the temple most of the time. Water has also reached the foundation of the cathedral which has led to several cracks on its walls. Blocks of the podium located on the edge of the Nile have been dismantled which may lead to an eventual total collapse. The fortification walls have indeed collapsed, and mud-brick buildings near the new water line have fallen as well, either from the effect of direct water or from percolation. The most important of these are a 25th Dynasty temple, from which a wall painting has already collapsed and another is now in danger of disappearing.

Percolation through dry deposits also threatens the excellent organic preservation of the site. Once exposed to water, the organic matter decays rapidly to a brown smelly slime from which nothing can be recovered.

"The damages increase year after year which demands the intervention of UNESCO to rescue and protect the only vestige of Nubian monuments that still remain in situ," Mohamed El-Biali, head of Aswan and Nubian Monuments in the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), told Al-Ahram Weekly. El-Biali said Egypt needs rapid and immediate action similar to that of the 1960s when UNESCO played a significant role in leading the international salvage campaign for Nubian monuments.

Egypt renewed its appeal to UNESCO in 2000 and 2005.

El-Biali suggests the establishment of a high-level committee consisting of restorers, researchers, archaeologists and documentation experts in order to document the site, restore its monuments, excavate its sand and protect it from present and future threats. El-Biali also called for the resumption of excavation works in the area especially that led by the British mission of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES).

EXCAVATIONS IN QASR IBRIM: Excavation at Qasr Ibrim started in 1963 as part of the UNESCO campaign to salvage the sites and monuments which would be lost after the construction of the High Dam. Excavation has continued, usually on a biennial basis, and there remains much to do.

The importance of such a site is two-fold. As the only surviving archaeological site in Lower Nubia, Qasr Ibrim is the only place where modern techniques of excavation and recording can be applied, or information gathered on subjects which the excavators of other Lower Nubian sites in the UNESCO campaign were unable, through pressure of time or lack of resources, to pursue. Furthermore, the site lies in a desert region with almost no rainfall, and originally at a height where very little insect activity took place. As a result, the preservation of materials not usually found on archaeological sites even in the rest of Egypt is outstanding. The EES routinely excavates leather, papyrus, wood, textiles and other plant remains, some going back to the first millennium BC.

"Despite the many seasons of excavation, there is still much to do," El-Biali said, adding that Qasr Ibrim has been excavated as one peels an onion, gradually stripping off the layers of occupation to reveal the ones below. The team is just now beginning to examine the early levels of occupation on the site: the first fortifications, the occupation of the Nubian pharaohs who ruled both Egypt and Nubia, the Roman fortress, and finally the remains of the Sudanese state which succeeded the Roman presence at Ibrim.

The methodical peeling process just described has recently come under pressure. Even when Lake Nasser is high, the water level is low enough to preserve much of the fortress, but work has proceeded slowly, to maximise the information recovered.

A number of Meroitic texts have been found along with Graeco and Latin papyri.

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Sending out an SOS

Saturday, September 01 2007 @ 01:48 PM CDT