Faras

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Faras

Faras, known in ancient times as Pachoras, was a major city in Lower Nubia

Lower Nubia

Lower Nubia is the northern portion of Nubia, downstream on the Nile from Upper Nubia. It lies between the First Cataract and Second Cataracts, roughly from Aswan in the north to Wadi Halfa in the south....
in modern Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
.

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Sudan Farras Fresco of Cathedral 22dez2005

Faras, known in ancient times as Pachoras, was a major city in Lower Nubia

Lower Nubia

Egypt

Lake Nasser

Lake Nasser is a vast reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Strictly, "Lake Nasser" refers only to the much larger portion of the lake that is in Egyptian territory , with the Sudanese preferring to call their smaller body of water Lake Nubia ....
in the 1960s, and is now permanently underwater. Before this flooding, extensive archeological work was conducted by a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
archeological team.

Dating back to the A Group

A group

In mathematics, in the area of abstract algebra known as group theory, an A-group is a type of group that is similar to abelian groups. The groups were first studied in the 1940s by Philip Hall, and are still studied today....
period, the town was a major centre during the Meroitic

Meroë

Mero? is the name of an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum....
period, and was the site of a major temple. During the period of Egyptian control over Nubia, Faras became an Egyptian administrative centre and, located upriver from Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser about 290 km southwest of Aswan....
, Egyptian cultural influences were prominent.

The city reached its height during the Christian period of Nubia, and Faras became the capital of the state of Nobatia

Nobatia

Nobatia also known as Nobadia was an ancient African Christian kingdom in Lower Nubia and subsequently a region of the larger Nubian kingdom of Makuria....
. When Nobatia was absorbed into Makuria

Makuria

Makuria was a monarchy located in what is today Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. It was one of a group of Nubian kingdoms that emerged during the decline of the Aksumite Empire, which had dominated the region from approximately 50 AD to AD 950....
, it remained the most prominent centre in the north. One of the most important discoveries from this period was the town's cathedral. The cathedral had been completely filled with sand, preserving the large number of intricate paintings on its walls. These paintings are the best surviving examples of Christian Nubian art. They depict a number of well-known Biblical scenes and also portraits of various bishops of Faras and monarchs. These paintings were salvaged and are today on display in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the Capital and World's largest cities of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains....
and Khartoum

Khartoum

Khartoum is the Capital of Sudan and of Khartoum . It is located at the confluence point of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia....
. A major pottery works was also found at Faras, which likely made much of the high quality pottery of the Makurain Golden Age.

In the turbulent, later years of Christian Nubia, Faras seems to have declined, and the administrative centre switched to the more easily defended centre of Qasr Ibrim

Qasr Ibrim

Qasr Ibrim is an archeological site in Lower Nubia. It was originally a major city perched on a cliff above the Nile, but the flooding of Lake Nasser after the construction of the Aswan High Dam transformed it into an island and flooded its outskirts....
.

External links

, Vienna 2002