Archaeological Sites around Lake Nubia (Nasser) Quiz

Answer: Heit el-Ghourab

It is at Giza and if it was anywhere else it would be famous. It probably dates from the same time as the Pyramids. In English, the name translates as the 'Wall of the Crow', but it is not known what the ancient name is. It is 200m long, 10m high and 10 m thick at the base and does not seem to have been finished (the masonry is not dressed).

The lintel over the gate is one of the largest stones used in an Egyptian building.

Answer: Temple of Beit al-Wali

You cannot go ashore at Qasr Ibrim. It is a town that has remains from 1543 BCE to 1811 (when the descendants of Bosnian mercenaries and local women were driven out). The most prominent ruin is the Christian Cathedral on top of the hill (Nubia was Christian for about 1000 years from the mid-sixth century). It includes reused ancient Egyptian stones. How much of the site you can see depends on the lake level.
Dakka and Maharraqa are conventional temples.

Answer: Thoth

Specifically Thoth of Pnubs (the sycamore fig tree). Here his wife is Tefnut the goddess of moisture, not the obscure Nehmetaway as at Khmun. There is a Nubian legend that Tefnut was angry with her father and devastated Nubia until Thoth and her brother Shu persuaded her to return to Egypt.

The town this temple was in was called Pselkis (Scorpion) in Ptolemaic times so it is surprising the temple was not dedicated to the scorpion goddess Selket.

Answer: A Meroitic (Nubian) king (300 BCE-350 CE)

It was founded by king Arkamani (whose name was mangled by the Greeks into Ergames). His contemporary, Ptolemy IV (222-205 BCE), also did some work. Work continued into the Roman period. There are some reused new kingdom blocks, but they probably came from elsewhere.

Answer: The pharaoh offering flowers to St. Peter

This is caused by the temple being plastered over and used as a church. Subsequently, plaster has fallen away leaving St. Peter and revealing Ramses II making an offering.

Dancing pygmies are known from ancient Egypt - one old kingdom official had a letter from the young pharaoh Pepi inscribed on his tomb. In this letter, Pepi was so excited about the pygmy that he says guards are to be set so the pygmy does not fall overboard and drown.

Answer: All of these

There is also a temple of Tuthmosis III (1450bc) from al-Lesiya in Turin and a gateway in Berlin made of Ptolemaic stones that had been used as fill at Kalabsha. Dabod is now in Madrid where the weather is causing concern about its condition. Taffa which is uninscribed but is probably Greco-Roman is now in a museum in Leiden, Netherlands. Dendur was built in the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Dendur, Dabod and Quertassi may have been on the processional route of the goddess Isis at Philae as she traveled round her estates.

Answer: Kalabsha

At all the sites on the lake, about three temples from various places are brought together. Kalabsha is the largest free standing temple in Nubia. The West Germans had to move 13,000 blocks. It is not coloured now but in 1873, Amelia Edwards complained about the crude and violent colouring.

Maharraqa is a small, unfinished Roman temple.

Answer: Temple of Abu Simbel

It is the small temple about 100m from the main temple. Amada is the oldest temple in Nubia dating from about 1500 BCE. Derr is one of Ramses II many foundations. It was described as 'an ugly ruin with no charms', but it has good internal decoration as it was used as a church, and the original decoration was protected by being plastered over.

Answer: six plus two smaller lobbies

These rooms are described as storerooms but they are decorated - though one has only one wall decorated. The decoration is mostly the king making offerings to various gods. For example, on one wall he offers to three versions of Horus - of Baki, of Buhen and of Miam and to the ram-headed Amun-re, Re-harakhti as well as himself (on one wall he is there twice).

Answer: Dead Syrian Chieftains

The Syrian was intended to show the Nubians what would happen if they made trouble for Amenophis.

A 9th century BCE camel (one-humped) jaw and dung was found not too far away at Qasr Ibrim (this is close to the date of the domestication of the camel). After this find there do not seem to have been any camels in Egypt till Ptolemaic times.