Nubian architecture is diverse and ancient. Permanent villages have been found in Nubia which date from 6000 BC. These villages were roughly contemporary with the walled town of Jericho in Palestine.

Early Period

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Early Nubian architecture was found in the A-Group culture(c. 3800 BC to c. 3100 BC.) which flourished in lower Nubia, Sudan. Most archeological finds from the A-Group culture come from cemeteries located a few miles away from the Nile.[2]

Excavations at an A-Group cemetery in Qustul yielded an old incense burner, which was adorned with Ancient Egyptian royal iconography:

"This incense burner is distinctively Nubian in form. Carved in the technique of Nubian rock art, it is decorated on the rim with typical Nubian designs. It was found in the tomb of a Nubian ruler at Qustul and incorporates images associated with Egyptian pharaohs: a procession of sacred boats, the White Crown of Upper Egypt, a falcon deity, and the palace facade called a serekh. It appears to represent a ritual that involved a royal procession by boat to a palace.

The scenes depicted on the Qustul Incense Burner have excited considerable interest and discussion - why would seemingly Egyptian symbols have been used in Nubia?

One interpretation is that Nubian A-Group rulers and early Egyptian pharaohs used related royal symbols. Similarities in rock art of A-Group Nubia and Upper Egypt support this position.

Another view suggests that the decoration was carved by Nubians in imitation of Egyptian art and rituals. In this perspective, A-Group Nubian rulers would have emulated the symbols of Egyptian pharaohs, whose prestige and power were evident."[20]

The A-Group culture came to an end around 3100 BC, when it was destroyed by the First Dynasty rulers of Egypt.

The A-Group culture was followed later by the C-Group culture (2200-1500 BCE). Settlements consisted of round structures with stone floors. The C-Group culture had roots in sub-saharan African culture:

"Small circular houses with stone foundations, handmade ceramics with elaborate incised decoration, and graves covered with circular stone mounds are features that C-Group shared with earlier Nubian A-Group and Pre-Kerma cultures. But the importance of cattle in the C-Group, shown in its burial stelae, pottery, figurines, and rock drawings, also links it firmly to the African cattle cultures that began in the Neolithic and then spread across sub-Saharan Africa."[21]

The C-Group culture also had deep ties with Egypt:

"C-Group cemeteries are found as far north as Hierakonpolis in southern Egypt, and Egyptians traveled and traded in Nubia. Many Nubians were soldiers in Egyptian armies. Nubian troops featured prominently in warfare during Egypt’s First Intermediate Period (about 2100 BC), a time of civil unrest. Egyptian traders and returning Nubian soldiers brought Egyptian goods including amulets, pots, and valuable gold and silver necklaces to Nubia. Though first ruled by Egypt and then by Kerma, C-Group culture retained its own distinctive customs for centuries. Later, C-Group traditions became less visible in archaeological remains as Nubians adopted Egyptian styles during the Egyptian New Kingdom occupation of Nubia (1550–1069 BC)."[21]

The C-Group culture was related to the Kerma Culture. Archeologists uncovered several ancient constructions dating back to the pre-Kerma period (4th millennium BC- 2600 BC).[3]

" The planning of the major Pre-Kerma settlement, in the locality of the Eastern Kerma Cemetery, reveals an urban architectural system, where monumental buildings, rectangular storage houses, cattle pens, palisades, and storehouses were uncovered. Exceptionally large huts, with one reaching 7 meters in diameter, found there have been interpreted by some as residence of wealthy individuals.

Moreover, a large number of buildings were found within the expanded town of Kerma... Several buildings have been identified as royal residences; usually consisting of interconnected rooms and courtyard enclosures.

The architectural materials, structures, and the presence of staircases in most of the palaces suggest that they were mostly built of more than one floor. The majority of them had rectangular or square plans with long corridors and narrow rectangular rooms; a hallway was usually present after passing through the main entrance.[3] "

Kerma

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Kerma (also known as Dukki Gel) was the capital city of the Kerma culture in present-day Sudan. Kerma was settled around 2500 BCE.

It was a walled city containing a religious building, large circular dwelling, a palace, and well laid out roads.

"Kerma has been excavated by a Swiss team for more than 30 years. The team has discovered the remains of temples, cemeteries and a city wall with bastions. Their discoveries reveal that the city was a center for trade with gold, ivory and cattle among other commodities being traded by Kerma's inhabitants. The exact amount of territory that Kerma controlled is uncertain, but it appears to have encompassed part of what is now Sudan and southern Egypt."[6]

Bronze forges were excavated by Bonnet’s Swiss team in the Kerma main city. “It is within the walls of the religious center that a bronze workshop was built. The workshop consisted of multiple forges and the artisans’ techniques appear to have been quite elaborate. There is no comparable discovery in Egypt or in Sudan to help us interpret these remains"[9]

Kerma was built around a large adobe temple known as the Deffufa, a mud brick temple where ceremonies were performed on top.[4]

The deffufa is a unique structure in Nubian Architecture. Three known deffufas exist: the Western Deffufa at Kerma, Eastern Deffufa, and a third, little-known deffufa.

"The Western Deffufa forms an imposing sight in the vicinity of the small Sudanese town of Kareema. Like the other Deffufas, it was built of thick mud-brick walls to provide cooler temperature in the hot climate. The structure is comprised of three stories and stretches over an area of 15,070 sq feet and is about 18 m. tall. The Deffufa is farther surrounded by a boundary wall.

Inside the Deffufa were columned chambers connected by a complex network of passageways. The walls were lavishly decorated with faience tiles and inlays and gold leaf. Magnificent paintings showing exotic scenes of the wild-life from the sub-Sahara served as visual luxury in Kerma's arid environment. A staircase seems to have lead to a shrine on the roof of the building. Evidence of a limestone altar, built for animal sacrifice, was also found. The repeated works of construction and development efforts indicate the centrality of the monument in the town of Kerma; most likely the town's principal temple."[7]

The Eastern Deffufa lies 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) east of the Western Deffufa. The Eastern Deffufa is shorter than the Western Deffufa, just two stories high. It is considered a funerary chapel, being surrounded by 30,000 tumuli or graves. It has two columned halls. The walls are decorated with portraiture of animal in color schemes of red, blue, yellow, and black and stone laid floors. Exterior walls were layered with stone.[7]

The third deffufa is of similar structure as the Eastern Deffufa.

Kerma contains a cemetery with over 30,000 graves. The cemetery shows a general pattern of larger graves ringed by smaller ones, suggesting social stratification.

"The people of Kerma people buried their dead in niche cut pits. A tumulus or a mound superstructure of sand and gravel, sometimes reaching 90 meters in diameter, was built over the graves of royal persons. The size of the mound indicated the social rank of the deceased person when alive. The larger the tumulus, the higher in rank the owner was; and the smaller it is, the lower in status.

A distinctive element of the Kerma culture was the unique bed burial tradition. The distinctive design and manufacture of the Kerma bed didn't change over time; it represents the traditional Sudanese bed today and is called Angaraib. The deceased was placed on top of the bed. The bed was then placed in the middle of the tomb chamber. On some cases, mummification was conducted on deceased kings and royal persons. The body was usually laid in a contracted body position with the head towards the east.

Flag staffs and square shaped steles were uncovered near tumuli structures and were probably related to the building structures."[8]

Kerma's artefacts are characterized by extensive amounts of blue faience and glazed quartzite[5] which are distinct in details and technique from those in Egypt.

Kush and Napata

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Between 1500-1085 BCE, Egyptian conquest and domination of Nubia was achieved. This conquest brought about the Napatan Phase of Nubian history.

Napata was founded by Egyptian pharaohThutmose III in the 15th century BC after his conquest of Nubia. The nearby Jebel Barkal was taken to mark the southern border of the New Kingdom of Egypt.

In 1075 BCE fragmentation of power in Egypt allowed the Nubians to regain autonomy. They founded the Kingdom of Kush, which was centered at Napata, and eventually conquered Egypt in 750 BC. They constitute the Twenty-fifth Dynasty in Manetho’s Aegyptiaca. The Twenty-fifth Dynasty ruled for a little more than one hundred years.

The reunited Egyptian empire under the 25th dynasty was as large as it had been since the New Kingdom and ushered in a renaissance.

"...the 25th Dynasty "Negro" kings are now recognized as having sponsored an important renaissance of Egyptian art and culture; they developed an almost scholarly interest in ancient Egyptian traditions and language and have been called "the first Egyptologists." The empire over which they presided was greater in extent than any ever achieved in antiquity along the Nile Valley. Their kings were said never to have condemned prisoners to death; they forgave their enemies and allowed them to retain their offices; they also actually gave public credit for achievement in their inscriptions to individuals other than themselves. Such characteristics among other ancient monarchs of Egypt or the Near East are unheard of, and we can only assume these were native Nubian qualities."[10]

The Nubian Pharaohs, such as Taharqa, built or restored temples and monuments throughout the Nile Valley, including at Jebel Barkal, Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, and elsewhere.

Jebel Barkal was of much spiritual significance to Nubian pharaohs. They held pharaonic coronation and consulted its oracle. It was thought to be the dwelling place of the deity Amun at the Temple of Amun (B500).

The Temple of Amun was originally built during the Egyptian New Kingdom but greatly enhanced by the Nubian King Piye:

"Piye was certainly remembered not as a conquering overlord, but as a just and great ancestor: He was later deified, with examples such as “Piankhi-yerike-qa” – “Begotten of the deified Piankhi” (Macadam, 1949, p.73). Posterity remembered him well as a holy king who ruled by the will of Amun. He commenced extensive building work at the temple of Amun at Gebel Barkal, and Grimal (1995, p.340) theorizes that to the Kushites, “The Gebel Barkal temple was therefore a replica of the temple of Amun in Karnak” and notes how each king after Piye enlarged upon it, in much the same way had been done at Karnak. Perhaps his work there was a deliberate attempt to start this trend, or was simply an expression of the power and resources that had been given to him by his god. Piye’s stele is certainly not an isolated example of Amun “fundamentalism”, but is a part of a wider context in which Piye can be seen to be attempting to recreate a time of prosperity and devotion to the god that he worshipped. Myśliwiec (2000, p.84) notes “the perfection with which stress is apportioned and appropriate proportions are maintained with regard to its political and religious aspects”, in a “carefully thought-out and didactic manner”. This should demonstrate to us how the stele was a carefully planned way to present Piye in the way that he wanted to be remembered – not as a master political lord, but primarily as a worshipper of Amun." [14]

Other temples include Temple of Taharqa (B200); Taharqa's other temples:Temples for Mut, Hathor, and Bes (B300); B501 (outer court), B502 (hypostyle hall), B700 (temple), B800sub (temple of Alara of Nubia), B1200 (palace). In all thirteen temples and three palaces have been excavated by Reisner, labeling its monuments B for Barkal.

At Memphis Shabaka transcribed on a stela known as the Shabaka Stone, an old theological document known as the Memphite Theology, on the deity Ptah, considered the demiurge who existed before all other things and, by his will, thought the world into existence.

At Karnak, several structures are owed to Taharqa including:

• The Kiosk of Tahraqa (690-664 B.C.) originally consisted of ten twenty-one meter high papyrus columns linked by a low screening wall.
• The Edifice of Taharqa:

  "He [Taharqa] was interested in Karnak’s “sacred lake” and built the “edifice of the lake” beside it, a partly underground monument.

  Today it’s badly damaged although mysterious, “this is a puzzling and enigmatic monument that has no parallels” writes Blyth. “It was “dedicated to Re-Horakhte [a combination of two sky gods], which would explain the open solar court above ground, while the subterranean rooms symbolised the sun’s nocturnal passage through the underworld.” Among its features was a “nilometer” a structure used to measure the water level of the Nile that. In this case, the meter would have had a symbolic use."[11]
• Taharqa also added a colonnade to the Precinct of Montu

https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/curatorial-departments/egyptian-art/temple-of-dendur-50/nubia

Nubia contains over 220 pyramids, built over a period of hundreds of years, to serve as headstones on top of tombs for Kushite kings, queens and wealthy citizens of Napata and Meroë. They are smaller but greater in number than the pyramids of Egypt.

The general construction of Nubian pyramids consisted of steep walls, a chapel facing East, stairway facing East, and a chamber access via the stairway.[12][13]

Nubian pyramids were constructed on three major sites: El-Kurru, Nuri, and Meroë.

Meroë

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Meroë (c. 785 BC – c. AD 350) was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush.

Meroë is considered to be the largest archaeological site in the world. It contains more Nubian Pyramids than any other site.

The culture shows a mixture of indigenous and Egyptian influences:

"Meroitic culture shows much Egyptian influence, always mixed with local ideas. Many temples housed cults to Egyptian gods like Amun (called Amani) and Isis, but indigenous deities received royal patronage as well. A very prominent Nubian god was the lion-deity Apedemak, a god of war whose popularity increased substantially in this period. Local gods were often associated with Egyptian ones: in Lower Nubia, Mandulis, for example, was considered to be Horus's son.

Hybridity is also visible in the arts and in royal ideology. For example, kings of Meroe were represented in monumental images on temples in Egyptian fashion but with local elements, such as garments, crowns, and weapons."[15]

The ancient Nubians established a system of geometry including early versions of sun clocks. Many are located at the sites of Meroë.The ancient Nubians used a trigonometric methodology similar to the Egyptians.[17]

"Mapping of standing stones and megalithic structures at Nabta in the Nubian Desert, 500 miles south of Cairo, suggests that the Neolithic nomads who once inhabited the area were not only monitoring the heavens, but recording what they saw in monumental form. According to an article in Nature by J. McKim Malville of the University of Colorado, Fred Wendorf of Southern Methodist University, and others, the megaliths were placed in deposits that probably accumulated between 7,000 and 6,700 years ago in a playa inundated by summer rains.

Alignments of standing stones and megalithic structures (oval clusters of recumbent stones) extend for up to a mile, marking north and east as well as 24 to 28 and 126 degrees east of north, directions whose meanings are still being worked out. A ten-foot circle composed primarily of stone slabs has four "windows" marked by pairs of standing stones; the four are arranged in two pairs, one forming a north-south line of sight and the other a line stretching from 62 to 298 degrees east of north. The latter coincides approximately with the summer solstice sunrise 6,000 years ago, which would have fallen about 63 degrees east of north.

Malville and Wendorf speculate that the megaliths, "partly submerged in the rising waters of the summer monsoon," may have marked the onset of the rainy season and created "a symbolic geometry that integrated death, water, and the sun." They also suggest that the migration of these nomads north as the summer rains dried up about 4,800 years ago may have stimulated the development of complex cultures and degrees of social status in predynastic Upper Egypt. Within a few hundred years, the pharaoh Djoser built the first pyramid, the step monument at Saqqara." [16]

Christian Nubia

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The Christianization of Nubia began in the 6th century AD. Its most representative architecture are churches.

Construction of the churches varried depending on climate of and region:

"Cut stone, generally quarried from nearby temples, was the preferred material for the earliest Nubian churches. Roughly dressed native stone, laid in heavy mortar, was also employed. There was some use of mud brick in the smaller churches from the beginning, and in later centuries it became the almost universal building material. Only in the extreme north and the extreme south of Nubia - both areas subject to occasional rainfall - was there some continued use of stone in later times. Red (fired) brick was rarely used except for repairs and secondary construction. Only one church in Lower Nubia, at Faras West, was built primarily of red brick. On the other hand, several churches in Upper Nubia, at Sai, Old Dongola (Church of the Columns), Gandesi, and El Usheir, appear to have been built of red brick.

Many if not all of the earliest churches had flat, timbered roofs which were supported on monolithic columns. However, suitable timber soon became scarce, and in later centuries all Nubian churches had vaulted brick roofs, often with a central dome or cupola. Because of the peculiar unwieldiness of the Nubian vault, this method of construction necessitated in every case the replacement of stone columns by stout masonry piers. The last church in Lower Nubia to be built with columns and (presumably) a flat roof was the South Kom Church at Faras, dedicated in 930 AD...

The external plan of the Nubian church is almost invariably a simple rectangle, having its long axis east-west...

Both the overall size of the church building and the proportion of length of width diminished continually during the Christian period. The earliest churches were consistently large, long and narrow. The Basilica at Kasr Ibrim, built probably in the 6th or 7th Century, is the largest known church in Nubia, measuring 3 X 19m. The length width ratio in the early churches averaged 1.67 to 1, and sometimes reached 2 to 1. At the end of the Christian period the dimensions of most churches were under 10m., and the plan was virtually square. The total area covered by the building diminished by 90%, from an average 350sqm. to 35sqm. ... The first Nubian churches, whose plan included a narthex, were entered from the west, either by a single door in the center of the west wall or by doors at the extreme western ends of the side (north and south) walls, or both. However, the narthex went out of fashion almost at once, and the mode of entry was altered accordingly. Almost all Nubian churches from the 7th Century onward were entered by doors in the north and the south walls located slightly to the west of the center of the building... " [18]

Church painting with biblical themes were extensive but few survived. The best surviving church painting were on the Rivergate Church of Faras and the Church of Ab El Qadir.

One prominent feature of Nubian churches are vaults (dome) made out of mud-bricks. The mud-brick structure was revived by Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy after rediscovering the technique in the Nubian village of Abu al-Riche . The technology is advocated by environmentalist as environmentally friendly and sustainable, since it makes use of pure earth without the need of timber.[19]

One of the key advantages of the Nubian vault is that it can be built without any support or shuttering. The earth bricks are laid leaning at a slight slope against the gable walls in a length-wise vault, as in this photo of a building from the ruins of Ayn Asil in Egypt. The same principle can be used to build domes, as in the example below from Cameroon.

These environmentally sound, comfortable, and aesthetic buildings require neither imported sheet metal for the roofing, nor expensive and increasingly rare timber beams.

Islamic Nubia

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The conversion to Islam was a slow, gradual process, with almost 600 years of resistance. Most of the architecture of the period are mosques built of mud-bricks. One of the first attempt at conquest was by Egyptian-Nubian, Ibn Abi Sarh. Ibn Abi Sarh was a Muslim leader who tried to conquer all Nubia in the 8th century AD. It was almost a complete failure. An agreement called the Baqt, shaped Egyptian-Nubian relations for six centuries, and permitted the construction of a mosque in the Nubian capital of Dongola for Muslim travelers. By the middle of the 14th century, Nubia had been converted to Islam. The royal Church of Dongola was converted into a mosque. Numerous other churches were converted to mosque.[22]

Video Gallery

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