Fifty years after UNESCO completed its Nubia campaign, one monument is still in need of rescuing from the water, says Nevine El-Aref This week some 150 officials and scientific experts, many of whom had participated in the 1960s salvage campaign, gathered at the Nubia Museum in Aswan to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Nubia Monuments Salvage Campaign. The event, which was entitled "Lower Nubia: Revisiting the Past, Envisaging the Future", aims at not only to commemorate the campaign through remembering the past with a vision to the future, but to strengthen the cooperation between Egypt and Sudan through understanding, safeguarding and presenting their tans-boundary cultural heritage. Tarek Shawqi, director of UNESCO's Cairo office, said the planned Nubia Museum of Wadi Halfa in Sudan, at the heart of the Nubia Region and complementary to the one in Aswan, would play a pivotal role in strengthening the cooperation as well as representing a propulsive scientific centre and community- based museum in the area of the second Cataract. The reinforcement of the memorandum of understanding between Egypt and Sudan to cooperate in the protection and promotion of cultural heritage is another aspect of the celebration. "Our objective is not only to commemorate the achievements of the Nubia Salvage Campaign and their momentous importance in recognising, valuing and conserving world cultural heritage, but also to look at the future of the area in terms of preservation of tangible and intangible heritage, as well as landscape and environment," Shawqi said. During the event a campaign for the preservation of the intangible heritage of Nubia was launched and a display of modern Nubian artefacts, folkloric performances and full interaction with the Nubian community was also part of the event. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), took advantage of the event to call on UNESCO to unite with the SCA to save Qasr Ibrim, the only Nubian site still in situ. "I am sure you know that in recent years, the waters of Lake Nasser have been rising because of the work at Toshka. The water has destroyed 60 per cent of the island on which the monuments of Qasr Ibrim now stand, along with many of the archaeological remains at the site," Hawass told the assembled guests. He pointed out: "The effects of wind can be seen in the rock of the cliff on which the site was once perched. As cruise boats sail near the island, they strike the remains of the podium located at the edge of the water, threatening it with total collapse." Hawass continued that in February 2005 an official mission organised by UNESCO with the Egyptian and Sudanese governments prepared a report on the dangers facing Qasr Ibrim. "Although the SCA gave approval for an immediate salvage project four years ago now, and nothing has been put into action," Hawass said angrily. He added that the SCA would soon begin the restoration of the Imhotep boat, which was in the original salvage campaign 50 years ago and is now docked at Amada near Sebua Temple. "I hope that at the end of the three-day conference held as part of the celebration, we will finally be able to announce the beginning of the campaign to save Qasr Ibrim," Hawass said, adding that, if so, it would be a truly beautiful and important way to fulfil the legacy of the first international campaign and to show how our shared cultural heritage can bring everyone together from around the world. Qasr Ibrim displays a number of archaeological remnants of Egypt's various historical epochs that once witnessed a unique civilisation. It was once an eagle's nest over Lower Nubia, but is now an island, or at times a peninsula, on the east bank of the artificial Lake Nasser which came into being after the building of the Aswan High Dam in the early 1960s. The site was intermittently inhabited from as early as the Middle Kingdom until the 1840s. It also functioned as a military stronghold and a destination of religious pilgrimage for various armies and religious denominations. Throughout its 3,000-year history, Qasr Ibrim has lain on the border territory between Egypt and her southern neighbours. Control of the area around Ibrim fluctuated with the changing political situations to the north and south. The fortress of Qasr Ibrim, situated high above the Nile, provided a secure military base for whoever was the controlling power at the time from which to watch over traffic on the river, and to oversee the nomads who roamed the Eastern Desert, an ever- present threat to the settled communities along the Nile. From the earliest feature so far discovered on the site -- a length of massive fortification wall dating from about 1000 BC through to the 16th-century Ottoman garrison that repaired and occupied the fortress to guard their southern frontier -- Qasr Ibrim's military importance has always been paramount. Alongside its military role, however, Qasr Ibrim also functioned as a religious centre early in its history and a centre of pilgrimage in both pagan and Christian times. Pharaonic and Roman temples have been discovered, and even today the site is dominated by the shell of a Christian cathedral that dwarfs the surrounding remains. The Middle Kingdom fortress of Senusert III is the oldest monument found on the island, along with a number of New Kingdom chapels of the 18th-Dynasty Pharaohs Tuthmosis III, Amenhotep II and Queen Hatshepsut. It also houses a mud-brick temple of the 25th-Dynasty Nubian ruler Taharqa and several residential houses of the same era. During the Graeco-Roman period no fewer than six mud-brick temples dedicated to Isis, Amun and other ancient Egyptian deities were built, along with a small military garrison and dormitory for soldiers. The name of the island was changed to Premis. When Christianity took roots in Egypt, it became the seat of the Coptic Patriarchy where an enormous cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary was constructed during the sixth century. Taharqa Temple was also transformed into a Coptic church. When the Ottomans invaded the island in the 16th century, they changed the name of the island to Ibrim, built a small mosque there and left some Bosnian soldiers to protect their new territory. These intermarried with the Nubians and formed their own families. Down the ages the island was transformed into a small town filled first with temples, colossi and a necropolis, then a fortress, houses, cathedral and mosque. In the 1960s, when Egypt decided to build the High Dam and called for a salvage operation to save the Nubian monuments, all the temples were relocated to other, safer locations except the monuments of Qasr Ibrim, which was built on top of an 80-metre high rock formation above the Nile water level which it was thought would prevent its inundation by the flow of Lake Nasser after the completion of the dam. Almost 60 per cent of the island has been inundated and water leaks into the temple most of the time. Water has now reached the foundations of the cathedral, which has led to several cracks in the walls. Blocks of the podium located on the edge of the Nile have been dismantled, which may lead to an eventual total collapse. The fortification walls have already collapsed and mud-brick buildings near the new water line have also fallen, either from the effects of direct water or from percolation. The most important of these is a 25th-Dynasty temple, from which a wall painting has already collapsed and another is now in danger of disappearing. Percolation through dry deposits also threatens the excellent organic preservation of the site. Once exposed to water, the organic matter decays rapidly to a brown, smelly slime from which nothing can be recovered. "The damage is increasing year after year, calling for the intervention of UNESCO to rescue and protect the only vestige of Nubian monuments that still remain in situ," Mohamed El-Biyali, head of Aswan and Nubian monuments, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Egypt renewed its appeal to UNESCO in 2000 and 2005. In a speech on behalf of Culture Minister Farouk Hosni which was delivered by Hawass, Hosni described the role of UNESCO during the 1960s campaign as "great" as it led to not only saving a part of world cultural heritage but was a great accomplishment in the field of cultural heritage preservation involving the entire world. "It opened the door to a glorious tradition of working together to save our shared past," he said. "This campaign led to the signing of the UNESCO World Heritage convention which supports endeavours to preserve cultural treasures all over the world," Hosni went on to stress another aspect of UNESCO's role: "UNESCO can also be active in leading the world towards tolerance and appreciation of how our differences can be brought together to make us all stronger," he said. "Egypt demonstrates the ways in which the three great religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have coexisted peacefully and have grown together and learnt from one another." Hosni also highlighted the important role that UNESCO can play in supporting and increasing universal cooperation among nations both along the north-south axis between Europe and Africa and from east to west. During the opening session Egyptian, Sudanese and foreign individuals who contributed in the 1960s salvage campaign were honoured with a gold medallion. On the fringe of the celebration, a number of exhibitions displaying historic documents related to the campaign are also being held. Excursions to some of the neighbouring archaeological sites were also arranged to show recent scientific activities implemented there.
