Faras
Encyclopedia
Faras 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 and Second Cataracts, roughly from Aswan in the north to Wadi Halfa in the south. A great deal of Lower Nubia was flooded with the construction of the Aswan High Dam and the creation...

 in modern Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

. The site of the city was flooded by Lake Nasser
Lake Nasser
Lake Nasser is a vast reservoir in southern Egypt, and northern Sudan, and is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. 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...

 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 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 exclave, to the north...

 archeological team.

Dating back to the A-Group
A-group
A-Group is the designation for a distinct culture that arose between the First and Second Cataracts of the Nile in Nubia betweenthe Egyptian 1st dynasty and the 3rd millennium BC.The A-Group settled on very poor land with scarce natural resources, yet...

 period, the town was a major centre during the Meroitic
Meroë
Meroë Meroitic: Medewi or Bedewi; Arabic: and Meruwi) is 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. Near the site are a group of villages called Bagrawiyah...

 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 temples refers to two massive rock temples in Abu Simbel in Nubia, southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser about 230 km southwest of Aswan...

, 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
Silko
Silko may refer to*Silko of Nobadia, a 5th century king of Nobadia*Leslie Marmon Silko, a Native American author...

 of Nobadia. When Nobatia was absorbed into Makuria
Makuria
The Kingdom of Makuria was a kingdom 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 it had been part of from approximately 4BC to AD 950...

, it remained the most prominent center in the north, the seat of Nobadia's eparch. 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 largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

 and Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...

. A major pottery works was also found at Faras.

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 archaeological 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. Qasr Ibrim is the only major archaeological...

.

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