Old Dongola — Capital of the Kingdom of Makuria for More Than Eight Centuries

The city of Old Dongola lies on the eastern bank of the Nile between the Third and Fourth Cataracts. The Nubians founded it as a fortress in the fifth century CE, then it became the capital of the Kingdom of Makuria after it embraced Christianity in the middle of the sixth century. Its archaeological site today extends over about 200 hectares, comprising the citadel, royal buildings, churches, dwellings and cemeteries.

The capital held out against the armies of the Islamic conquest: in 652, the Muslim army besieged Dongola but was driven back, and the two parties then concluded the Baqt Treaty, which guaranteed about six centuries of peace between Muslim Egypt and Christian Makuria, in one of the longest coexistence agreements in the history of the region.

The city reached the peak of its glory between the ninth and eleventh centuries: the Church of the Granite Columns was built with sixteen columns of Aswan granite, and the Cruciform Church, which is considered one of the largest religious buildings in Makuria, in addition to the royal Throne Hall, which was converted into a mosque in 1317 — the date considered the beginning of the Islamic era in Nubia.

Excavation work at Old Dongola has been led since 1964 by the Polish mission of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, and its discoveries revealed rare artistic treasures: the tomb of Archbishop Georgios (beginning of the twelfth century) with walls written in Greek, Coptic and Old Nubian, and a chamber painted with frescoes of the Virgin Mary, Christ, King David and the Archangel Michael, which scholars described as "unique in Christian art," in addition to the discovery in 2021 of a cathedral believed to be the largest in Nubia ever.

In 2026, the excavations provided new historical evidence: a letter in the Arabic language proving the historical existence of King Qashqash, who was considered a semi-legendary figure. The royal court left Dongola in 1364, and the city remained a center of a small local kingdom that maintained active trade relations as far as the Far East and Europe, until a new administrative center was founded at al-Urdi — modern Dongola — after Sudan was annexed to Egypt in 1821.

📚 Sources:

  • Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology — University of Warsaw: https://pcma.uw.edu.pl/en/2019/04/02/dongola-2/
  • Smithsonian Magazine on the cathedral discovery: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ruins-large-nubian-church-found-sudan-180978136/
  • Artnet on the discovered frescoes: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/christian-paintings-old-dongola-sudan-polish-archaeologists-2283888

— Editorial Team