Naqa — The Meroitic Temple City in the Heart of the Butana
Naqa lies in the semi-desert Butana plain between the Nile and Atbara rivers, about 170 kilometres north-east of Khartoum and about 50 kilometres east of the Nile. It was a city and an important religious centre in the Kingdom of Kush during its Meroitic era, and it includes the remains of several temples dating to between the fourth century BC and the fourth century AD, alongside the ruins of a residential settlement and cemeteries, according to the documentation of the archaeological missions working at the site.
The most famous of Naqa's buildings is the Lion Temple, dedicated to Apedemak, the lion-headed warrior god, an authentic Kushite god. UNESCO materials describe this temple as a classic model of Kushite architecture, and its massive gateway shows King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore exercising their divine authority over captives, with lions at their feet. The temple was built in the first century AD, in the reign of these two rulers, who ruled Kush together.
To the east of the Roman Kiosk stands the Temple of Amun, built of sandstone, red brick and mud brick, and approached from the west by a long ramp lined on each side with six statues in the form of rams, with a sandstone kiosk at its centre, according to UNESCO's description. The Roman Kiosk itself is a small rectangular sandstone building preserved up to near the level of its roof, standing a few metres east of the Lion Temple, and its architectural and decorative elements combine Pharaonic Egyptian, Hellenistic and local influences; it is believed to have been a shrine to the goddess Hathor.
The first European travellers reached Naqa in 1822, and the Prussian mission led by Richard Lepsius documented its landmarks in 1843 and 1844. After a long hiatus, a long-term international excavation project began at the site in 1995, led by Dietrich Wildung, director of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, with the participation of a German-Polish team and funding from the German Research Foundation; since 2013, scientific and administrative supervision has passed to the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich. Despite decades of work, the area excavated, documented and restored by 2009 did not exceed five per cent of the city's ruins, according to the project's own management.
In 2011, UNESCO inscribed Naqa on the World Heritage List as part of the "Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe", together with the royal city at Meroe and the temple complex of Musawwarat es-Sufra, under cultural criteria (ii), (iii), (iv) and (v). These three sites are, according to UNESCO, the best-preserved remains of the Kingdom of Kush, the great power whose influence extended from the eighth century BC to the fourth century AD, and which witnessed a wide exchange between the arts, architecture, religions and languages of Africa and the Mediterranean world.
📚 Sources: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - UNESCO, World Heritage List "Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe" and UNESCO materials in Google Arts & Culture on the temples of Naqa; Naga Project - the Egyptian Museum in Berlin and the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich — Editorial Team
