Qualla: Faras

Faras: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Anonymous (Faras)Unknown author, CC0. In 1961, Polish archaeologists opened up a hill at Faras and found a cathedral inside it. They had come expecting to excavate a late antique town before the rising reservoir drowned it. What they found was a buried Christian basilica whose walls were still covered in tempera paintings - archangels, bishops, Nubian queens, a black Saint Anne holding a black Virgin - some of the most dazzling medieval art in all of Africa. Over the next four years, racing the water, the team cut 120 of the 169 frescoes off the walls. Sixty-six are now in Warsaw, the rest in Khartoum. The cathedral they were painted on is underwater.

Read more: Faras on Qualla

Image: Anonymous (Faras)Unknown author | CC0

Faras: Pakhoras on the Border

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 2.0. Faras - Pakhôras in ancient Greek, Pakhoras in Old Nubian - was already a major town in the Meroitic period, the southern Kushite kingdom that succeeded Napata. When Egypt controlled Nubia, Faras became an administrative center; a major temple was built here, and the cultural inf...

Read more: Faras on Qualla

Image: CC BY-SA 2.0

Faras: The Cathedral Beneath the Hill

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SimonP Original uploader was UHF at fr.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5. The cathedral at Faras was founded by Bishop Aetios in 620 AD, expanded by Bishop Paulos at the beginning of the eighth century, and rebuilt again by Bishop Petros I at the end of the tenth. The later buildings were named for these bishops. The walls inside were plastered and pai...

Read more: Faras on Qualla

Image: SimonP Original uploader was UHF at fr.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 2.5

Faras: Racing the Dam

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. In 1960, UNESCO launched the Nubian Salvage Campaign. The Aswan High Dam was rising, Lake Nasser would soon fill, and the monuments of Lower Nubia had to be saved or documented before they disappeared. The Polish portion of this effort was entrusted to Professor Kazimierz Michało...

Read more: Faras on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Faras: Two Galleries, One Drowned City

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sven-Steffen Arndt, CC BY-SA 2.0. The saved paintings live in two museums. Sixty-six are at the National Museum in Warsaw, where the Faras Gallery is one of Poland's cultural treasures - a permanent exhibition of Nubian Christian art in the heart of Europe. The rest are at the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum, w...

Read more: Faras on Qualla

Image: Sven-Steffen Arndt | CC BY-SA 2.0