FROM a boat on the reservoir between Egypt’s high and low dams in Aswan, a local Nubian man called Haj Omar points to where the ancient temple of Philae used to be. After the low dam was completed in 1902, the site was often flooded, so in the 1960s the temple was moved, piece by piece, to higher ground some 500 metres downriver. Mr Omar then points down, towards his grandfather’s house—it was not moved and is now underwater.
The Nubian people are descended from an ancient African civilisation that once ruled a large empire, including all of Egypt for a brief period. For thousands of years they have lived on the banks of the Nile river, from southern Egypt to northern Sudan. Christianity penetrated the region in the 4th century, but most Nubians converted to Islam in the 15th and 16th centuries, as they came under the sway of Arab powers. When Sudan seceded from Egypt in 1956, the Nubian community was split between the two countries.
Despite efforts to save Nubian monuments, much of this rich history was washed away by the construction of a series of dams, culminating with the Aswan high dam in 1970. Most of the Nubian homeland now sits under the reservoir...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2cI2MZ7
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