Yesterday, Alexander and I continued our culturally aware sightseeing that started last week with an exploration of Sudan’s 18th century… This time, we took Nadia of War Child along on a desert trip and went back some more decades. More specifically, we went 2000 years back in time to the temples of Naqa and Musawwarat es Sufra.

The two sites are both about 150 kilometers North of Khartoum. On the road down there, you pass some strange piles of pebbles. Like a little kid has been playing with stones and made a nice pile of it. Nicely curved, rounded pebbles, but then > 2 metres in diameter… The car is looking like a little toy, next to the pebbles:

Some fierce posing going on here, or not?:

Naqa

After that, we went on to Naqa. A very nice experience, for everyone who likes offroading through the desert… And I do… Very nice tracks and very nice parts without tracks. Dry river beds, open sand plains, bushy areas with thornbushes. A true Paris – Dakar experience. From the paved road, it will take you less than an hour to find your way through incredibly hot desert to the site of Naqa. The Lonely Planet is talking about Meriotic temples and one of the best preserved Kushite sites of Sudan.

Looking at the temples, I had the feeling that all of it was built by Egyptian kings who explored the Sudan. But as it turns out, it’s the other way around! The 25th dynasty of the Kingdom of Kush in the 8th Century BC – coming from Upper Nubia in the North of Sudan – saw themselves as the true guardians of Egyptian religion and tradition. They felt that the rules of Thebes had allowed their kingdom and Egyptian tradition to decay. To prevent that from continuing, the Kush invaded Egypt and took over Thebes. At some point, the Nubian controls went up to the edges of Libya and Palestine. Unfortunately for this Nubian king, his rise of power coincided with the Assyrian expansion from Babylon. The Assyrians swept into Egypt and kicked the Nubians back to Sudan. After that, the history becomes a bit hazy. In that sense, the purpose of the temples of Naqa is still unclear. And why build it in the middle of the desert and not on the banks of the Nile, as most temples and pyramids? But the influence of Egyptian art and culture is clearly visible.

Some pictures of the Temple of Amun at Naqa, built in the 1st Century AD:

Musawwarat es Sufra

The temple complex of Musawwarat es Sufra is impressive in its size of 55,000 square metres. The purpose of this complex also remains unclear. It’s funny to find ancient grafitti on the rocks, left there by French, English and German adventurers and colonist rulers of the past centuries.

The Great Enclosure, main part of the complex:

Nearby the Great enclosure is the Lion Temple, built in 230 BC. The Lion Temple was reconstructed and beautifully restored by Humbold University in Berlin in the 1960s.

In that sense, the Lion Temple is the finest standing Kushite temple:

Well, that’s it for this time. Have a good week!