A window

December 1964

(17th year)U.K.: 1/6 stg.Canada : 30 cents

France: 1 F

VICTORY

IN NUBIA

-*

( ajüi !*$ a* iff

PORTRAITFROM A TOMB

This exclusive photograph revealsthe features of a man who lived

and died in Nubia nearly 4,000 yearsago. A funerary mask it was reco¬vered1 with other masks from a

necropolis near the ancient fortressof Mirgissa by the French Archaeo¬logical Mission in Sudanese Nubia.The diversity of these masks sug¬gests that they were actual portraits.

iß André Vila-French Archaeological Mission à

Courier DECEMBER 1964

17TH YEAR

PUBLISHED IN

NINE EDITIONS

EnglishFrench

SpanishRussian

German

Arabic

U.S.A.

JapaneseItalian

Photos © Dr. Georg Gerster, Zurich

Front cover: The colossal statues of

Rameses II on the facade of the

Great Temple of Abu Simbel. Seestory page 11.

Back cover: A rich collection of fres¬

coes, painted layer upon layer, hasbeen found in the Nubian cathedral

of Faras. Here, part of a 9th-centuryMadonna has fallen away to reveala 7th-century work (heads of aNubian prince and an apostle).

Page

5 VICTORY IN NUBIA

by Ali Vrioni

7 NUBIA'S LAST SECRETS

by Christiane Desroches- Noblecourt

9 A TEMPLE MOVED ON RAILS

11 HOW ABU SIMBEL WILL BE SAVED

by Karl Heinz Martini

17 FARAS : GALLERY OF 169 FRESCOES

18 THE ART OF REMOVING A FRESCO

Photo story by Dr. Georg Gerster

27 RETURN TO THE LAND OF KUSH

A first-hand account of diggings in Nubiaby Rex Keating

33 THE SCROLLS OF KASR IBRIM

36 DESERT HIGHWAY BUILT FOR SHIPS

by Jean Vercoutter

38 MOVING A TEMPLE AS BIG AS A CATHEDRAL

The story of Kalabshaby H. Stock and K. G. Siegler

40 KEY TO A NATION'S FUTURE

The Aswan High Damby Taher Abu Wafa

42 STAMPS FOR NUBIA

46 UNESCO COURIER INDEX 1964

THE UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION

Published monthly by UNESCO

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Sandy Koffler

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German Edition : Hans Rieben (Berne)Arabic Edition : Abdel Moneim El Sawl (Cairo)Japanese Edition : Shin-lchi Hasegawa (Tokyo)Italian Edition : Maria Remiddi (Rome)

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iraiWondrous structures, ranking amongthe most magnificent on earth, are indanger of disappearing...

These monuments do not belong solelyto the nations who hold them in trust. The wholeworld has the right to see them endure. It istherefore with every confidence that I invitegovernments, institutions, public or private foun¬dations and men of goodwill everywhere to contri¬bute to the success of a task without parallel inthe past.

VITTORINO VERONESE

Director-General of Unesco (1958-1961)

This is not the first time that mankind

has reacted generously to a noble cause.' But this is the first time that interna¬

tional fellowship has found expressionon so large a scale in matters of culture, and thatgovernments have committed their States to suchan undertaking. It is also the first time that thissame fellowship has invoked the principle thatcertain religious, historical and artistic monuments,in which mankind has expressed its deepest convict¬ions and highest aspirations, belong to the wholehuman race and are part of its common heritage,regardless of when they came into existence or theplace where they happen to be.

Culture, an essential element of the intellectual andmoral solidarity of mankind has thus been recog¬nized by States, for all the world to see, as animportant factor in their co-operation for the pro¬motion of peace by the spirit to which the membersof Unesco have pledged themselves. That is thesignificance of this event which will itself makehistory.

RENÉ MAHEU

Director-General of Unesco

U.A.R. Antiquities Service

VICTORY

NUBIA

THE KIOSK OF KERTASSI REBUILT ON ITS NEW SITE (SEE PAGE 7)

HE flooding of Nubia began this autumn.

The new High Dam at Aswan, the famousSadd el Aali, which is to bring millions of people in thevalley of the Nile a prosperity they have never yet known,Is nearing completion. The barrier across the great riverwas closed in May, 1964. The waters are now slowlyrising behind it, transforming the antique land of Nubiainto a great artificial lake.

Only four and a half years have gone by since Unescodrew the attention of the world to the cultural heritage ofancient Nubia, and to its unique assemblage of historicmonuments, art treasures and sites teeming with archaeolo¬gical riches which because of the needed High Dam wereto be lost to mankind. Since then, the United Arab Repub¬lic and the Republic of the Sudan, under Unesco's auspicesand with the collaboration of more than fifty other countries,have laboured carefully, but hurriedly, to save all that couldbe saved.

Today, most of the work which had to be done has beenaccomplished. Yet, despite the rising waters, certain un¬completed projects are still being carried out. A tempor¬ary cofferdam is protecting the Abu Simbel temples fromthe rising Nile so that they can be cut out of their rock.For technical reasons owing to the special character ofthe site and its location north of the High Dam at Aswan,

by Ali VrioniDirector, Monuments of Nubia Service, Unesco

the salvage of Philae must wait. And archaeologists arenow conducting a gigantic exploration of the upstreamportion of Sudanese Nubia, which will be flooded only afew years from now, at the final stage of the formationof the 300-mile long lake.

However, with the closing of the High Dam, the Inter¬national Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia hasreached a turning-point. It is a good moment to take stockof what has been achieved.

This has been a campaign unprecedented in the culturalhistory of mankind. For the first time the world has seenorganized international action to save monuments andarchaeological wealth which, in law, belong only to thetwo countries where they are located. Never before inhistory has it been proposed to spend such large sumsfor a salvage operation of such monumental proportions.

The United Arab Republic and the Republic of the Sudanbegan by trying to save Nubia with their own resources.The task was by far too great. Both countries recognizedthat they were only the custodians of Nubia's ancientwonders and that the loss of these wonders would be

a loss to all mankind. In the summer of 1959, the U.A.R.and the Sudan turned to Unesco. 5

CONT'D ON NEXT PAGE

VICTORY IN NUBIA (Cont'd)

Victory for cultural co-operation

Unesco viewed the idea of international action in Nubiaas a special challenge. The monuments by themselvesfully justified world intervention but Unesco felt that morethan just Nubia itself was at stake.

The twentieth century has become an age of startlingtransformation, and its changes everywhere on the planetthreaten the heritage of the past upon which man's culturallife depended. For years, Unesco has been promotingregulations and methods for the protection of works of art,monuments and sites in all countries. But, in protecting ourcommon artistic heritage, there must be a worldwide feel¬ing of responsibility. The time had perhaps come to putthe Idea of international common effort into practice.

Certain misguided fears might be felt that the highcost of the salvage of Nubia, under Unesco's sponsorship,would mean curtailing programmes to advance educationof human welfare. Unesco had to show that this was

not true and that cultural and spiritual progress couldnot be thought of as competing with basic education andsocial and technological progress ; all these activities fit¬ted Into a common pattern and had to be pursued at thesame time. Failure to maintain the cultural and spiritualvalues of mankind would certainly bring on the failure ofefforts for education and material and social development.

The Director-General of Unesco launched his appeal tothe nations on 8 March 1960. Some sceptics scoffed at

NEW MEANING

More than four years have passed sincethe Director-General of Unesco launched

his appeal to all nations to help safeguardthe monuments of Nubia. To attain the

goal set by Unesco has been no easy task;indeed at times it seemed almost hopeless.Yet those who pursued it never lost faitheven in the most difficult days. Today theNubian Campaign has given new, deepermeaning to the words " international co¬operation ."

ABDEL MONEIM EL SAWI

Under-Secretary of StateMinistry of CultureUnited Arab Republic

the possibility of mobilizing international support of suchmagnitude. Everyone agreed, however, that the enterprisewas in harmony with the whole concept of Unesco, one ofwhose functions under its Constitution was to assure "the

protection of the world's inheritance of books, works ofart and monuments of history and science."

After four years of struggle against difficulties whichhave often seemed insuperable, after many disappoint¬ments and even threats of failure, the battle of Nubia Isnow won. Countless inestimable works of art and historical

documents and monuments of the first rank are no longerin danger. Nineteen temples have been saved comple¬tely dismantled and either already re-erected at their newsites or in storage awaiting the building operations.

But from the very start, the rescue of the temples ofAbu Simbel has stood as the symbol of the whole cam¬paign. Their beauty had defied the centuries; they nowchallenged the skill and ingenuity of engineers. Theproject finally adopted to save them from being submergedcalls for the two temples to be cut into blocks and re

constructed 64 metres (over 100 feet) above the presentsite.

The cost of the operation has been estimated at 36 mil¬lion dollars. International contributions for Abu Simbel totalover 17 million dollars. Of this sum the United States alone

has contributed $12 million; France $1 million; Italy $856,000and Sweden $500,000. In all, 51 responses have come tothe Unesco appeal, some with what may seem modestsums but which in view of the size of their national budget,constitute significant contributions (1). Unesco had set asits goal the sum of $20,500,000 so that only three milliondollars is now needed from donor sources to close the

small gap.

By November 16, 1963, the Government of the UnitedArab Republic which has pledged to meet the differencebetween the funds raised through international aid and thecost of the project, was in a position to sign an accordwith an international group of firms for the rescue ope¬ration at Abu Simbel to begin without delay.

Monuments however are only one aspect of the Nubiancampaign. As urgent, or perhaps more so, was the needto explore the area archaeologically before it was flooded.For the past five years Unesco has co-ordinated an unpre¬cedented campaign of exploration, carried out by archaeo¬logical expeditions from virtually every part of the world.The results have exceeded all expectations. Important pre¬historic sites have been discovered and excavations

between the first and third cataracts have helped to providemissing links in the prehistory of Central Africa and thatof Egypt. At least three new culture groups have beenidentified. A new chapter in history may well be forthcomingwhen all the finds made in Nubia are ultimately deciphered,classified and analyzed. With a few insignificant exceptionsthe whole lower area of Nubia 400 kilomètres of the Nile

valley has been explored and recorded archaeologicallyand in the upper stretches of Sudanese Nubia the workis in full swing. Never in the history of archaeology hasso vast a programme of exploration and excavation beencarried out in such a short period of time.

The monuments of Nubia, which were insufficientlyknown before Nubia was flooded, will now be visited bymillions of people. In their new sites, they will certainlybecome great centres of attraction, focal points for thecultural interest of the world.

A principle has been established, put into practice,tested in the fire of action: the principle that cultural wealth,wherever it may be found, belongs to and enriches allmankind, and that all mankind should therefore participatein its preservation.

(1) International financial contributions for the preservation

ofAbu Simbelpaid into Unesco Trust Fund (in U.S. dollars) :Afghanistan: $2.000; Algeria: $105,000; Saudi Arabia:$40.000¡Austria: $25,000; Belgium: $16,975; Bolivia: $7.000;Brazil: $12,850; Cambodia: $5,000; Cameroon: $26.000;

China: $2,000; Cyprus: $2.800; Cuba: $160,000; Denmark:$15.000; Ecuador: $1.000; Spain: $270,000; U.S.A.:$12,000,000; France: $1,000,000; Ghana: $46,000; Greece:

$30,000; India: $588.000; Indonesia: $10.000; Iraq: $60,000;Italy: $856,000; Japan: $20.000; Kuwait: $50.000; Lebanon:

$33.330; Libya: $26.000; Luxemburg: $40.000; Malaysia:$10.000; Mall: $2.040; Morocco: $86.000: Monaco: $10.200;

Nepal: $1,000; Nigeria: $53.200; Uganda: $5,600; Pakistan:$130.000; The Netherlands: $435.600: Philippines: $10.000;Qatar: $55,000; Rumania: $5.000; U.K.: $213.000; Vatican:

$10.000; Sierra Leone: $2,800; Sweden: $500.000;

Switzerland: $230.000; Togo: $815; Tunisia: $12.000;Turkey: $3.000; Uruguay: $10.000; Yugoslavia: $226.000;Order of Malta: $1.000; (See also p. 45).

Unesco-Rex Keating OASES FOR SUCCOURED TEMPLES. Four special sites have been set aside by the U.A.R. to receive the templesof Egyptian Nubia which have been or are to be dismantled to save them from the waters of the Nile. The first ofthese oases has been set near Aswan for the temples of Kalabsha, Kertassi and Beit-el-Wali. The second, locatednear Wadi es Sebua will receive the temple of Wadi es Sebua itself and that of Dakka. Near the ancient site of Amadawill be the third with Amada temple and the tomb of Pennut. Above the hill of Abu Simbel a fourth oasis will groupthe two temples of Rameses and Nefetari and nearby the rock-hewn chapel of Jebel Shams and the rock temple ofAbu Oda. The Sudan is creating an "oasis" In a special arranged park in the Khartoum museum for the temples ofAksha, Buhen, Semna West, Semna East (Kumma). Photo shows thousands of blocks of stone from dismantledtemples temporarily stored on the Island of Elephantine, near Aswan awaiting to be transferred to their new site.

NUBIA'S SANDS REVEAL

THEIR LAST SECRETSby Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt

I T has been a momentous experience to be ableI to follow the progress of the Nubian campaign

since 1960. The archaeological discoveries alone, I feel,have more than justifield the enormous efforts made by somany nations.

Interestingly enough, some of the most remarkable findshave occurred on what at first appeared to be unpromisingsites. When the full history of the International Campaigncomes to be written as I hope it will be one day it willreveal to us the amazingly broad sweep of events that havebeen encompassed in this, vast, breath-taking enterpriseof international co-operation and international generosity.This history will certainly show that the sums of moneyspent in Nubia were minuscule indeed when compared withthe fantastic results achieved. In terms of scientific results

alone the rewards have been of the highest importance.

To the layman, perhaps, scientific results may not alwaysseem spectacular or correspond to the fabulous treasuresoften associated with the world of the Pharaohs of ancient

Egypt. Nevertheless, a simple potsherd or a gazelle skincovered with inscriptions in "Old Nubian", a row ofmudbrick walls or the graffiti scratched on stones bypilgrims lost in the desert are the stuff from which manya new page of history has been written. Soon a wholenew panorama of Nubia in prehistoric times will unfold

before us as is already evident from the palaeolithic remainsdiscovered on the plateaux above the Nile and the Neolithicdrawings preserved on the rocks.

Until the recent excavation of Buhen who would have

dared to imagine that a flourishing town of metal workersexisted 3,000 years before our era near the Second Cata¬ract where Upper and Lower Nubia met. Magnificentexamples of Nubian military architecture of the classicalMiddle Kingdom (second millenium B.C.) were of courseknown, but before the Unesco campaign began most ofMirgissa had not yet been unearthed and the great fortressof Buhen itself was buried in sand until three years ago.

Nor did anyone suspect that the Nubians of the MiddleKingdom period vied with the garrisons from Egypt in theconstruction of fortifications. With the exception of themagic caches of "execration texts" bearing the names oftribes regarded as enemies, placed in the foundations, theNubian fortified village is revealed as the counterpart andopposite number of the Egyptian fortress. The use ofrounded bastions and zig-zagged gateways shows thatNubian military architecture existed far earlier than hadonce been believed.

From the New Kingdom period of Nubia a number of

CONT'D ON NEXT PAGE

NUBIA'S LAST SECRETS (Cont'd)

on the heel of discovery

cemeteries have been found whose funerary furnishingsreveal hitherto unknown aspects of the civilization of thattime. But the sands of Nubia held a more sensational

surprise in store for the Egyptologist. On numerous occa¬sions archaeologists had found references almost every¬where in the region to a temple of Horus at Baki (Kuban)which was apparently one of the most important templesof Egypt from the 15th century B.C. onwards. And yetin the area where it should have existed on the west bank

of the Nile the only remaining temple was the sanctuaryof Dakka, dedicated to the god Toth by Nubian monarchsof the Roman Ptolemaic era.

And then, in the summer of 1963 when the dromos, orsacred avenue of sphinxes of Dakka was being dismantledby the Antiquities Service of the United Arab Republic thewhole missing temple suddenly emerged from the sand, itsreliefs glittering with traces of the original colour. Thetemple had lain hidden for over two thousand yearsbeneath the stones of Dakka itself! It had been dedicated

by the great Pharaoh Thutmosis III to the falcon deity Horusto watch over the route leading to the gold mines in thearea. Thus on the eve of being engulfed forever Nubia hasagain given up a hitherto unknown monument to posterity.

One piece of good luck always leads to another, thesaying goes. Indeed no sooner had the temple of Horusbeen found than word was received that diggings in thearea of a little rock-hewn chapel just south of Wadi esSebua had uncovered a temple of almost gigantic propor¬tions built during the reign of Amenophis III. In the archi¬tecture of this edifice archaeologists quickly recognizedthe prototype of various structural forms later adopted inthe famous temples of Abu Simbel. More discoveries wereyet to come.

From beneath an altar that had escaped destructionduring the period of Akhenaton and the Tell-el-Amarnaheresy, archaeologists recovered an object placed therewhen the temple was founded, and which provides the keyto the entire theological system of this sanctuary. Theobject was a representation of the egg of creation, thetwo original halves of which, so the sacred texts of Egyptrecount, were deposited on the hill of Hermopolis, tradi¬tionally associated with the creation.

S EVERAL days later another find of the first'magnitude was made at Wadi es Sebua, that is,

the recovery intact of the Coptic vase used in the conse¬cration ceremonies which transformed this great temple intoa Christian church. Since that time, the vase had remainedhidden in the ground before the Christian altar.

This brings us to one of the most rewarding phases ofthe entire Nubia campaign the astonishing enrichment ofour knowledge concerning medieval Nubia. It was longbelieved that previous explorations had completelyexhausted the subject and that nothing new remained tobe learned. For forty years, in fact, no one had consideredit worthwhile to undertake any new investigations in thisfield. Yet from the day in 1959 when the foundation stone ofthe citadel of Ikhmindi was found to the latest unearthing ofthe city of churches at Tamit in September 1964, is onecontinuous story of exalted discovery: Faras and itsmajestic frescoes, the church of Abdallah Nirgi and itsdecorations, the cathedral of Kasr Ibrim and the extra¬ordinary "testament" of Bishop Timotheos the Nubian, onhis scrolls in Coptic and Arabic.

These are just a few examples from the dozens anddozens of discoveries that have come out of Nubia, some

g of which are described elsewhere in this issue, and everyone of which is an important contribution to science.

A whole chapter could be written on the anthropology

of Nubia and its people, and especially the aspect thattouches closes on archaeology, namely, the houses ofNubia. For the first time, the remains of ancient Nubianhouses were examined by archaelogists with specializedknowledge of architecture. On site after site they wereamazed to find how closely the Nubian dwellings resembledthe type of house built in the time of the Pharoahs.

And so the history of Nubia can at last be written. Mostof the credit must go to the archaeologists who haveworked to save its monuments. Had it not been for these

operations the discoveries I have just described wouldprobably .never have been made. Never before have theresources of archaeology been applied with such thorough¬ness and care in seeking the relics of an ancient land.

N EVER in the entire history of archaeology hasI there ever been such close co-operation be¬

tween different sites and missions in the field. With the

launching of the Nubian campaign a bridge was laid betweenworking and research methods of a strictly archaeologicalkind, whose limitations have now made them outdated, andmodern techniques which have come to the help of researchand conservation.

One of these is photogrammetry, which has now cometo be considered as one of the standard techniques usedon archaeological sites. Yet not many people realize thatthe first example of its systematic use occurred in theNubian campaign when it was used not only in its simplestform, for taking stereoscopic photographs but in the morecomplicated processes for contour plotting and the recon¬stitution of three-dimensional models. Thus one can saythat here too the Unesco appeal has played a vital roleand enabled archaeology to move ahead into a new phaseof progress.

Many countries have responded to Unesco's appealand by their efforts and good will have carried the resultswell beyond the primary objective of saving Nubia'stemples. Along with the plan to regroup the reconstructedtemples in three special "oasis" zones or to establish themin surroundings recalling their original sites it is proposedto create communities and farmlands nearby.

Who would have dared to believe when the Nubian

Appeal was first launched that such a plan could be appliedcoherently over an entire country? Until then it had merelybeen proposed that certain monuments or at most a famoussite be protected. We have come a long way indeed infour years.

No less unique is the fact that some fifty nations havejoined forces, not for reasons of aggression or defence,but to help safeguard an entire cultural heritage in dangerof being engulfed forever. All that human effort couldsave has been preserved, and with it a spiritual messageto be handed down to future generations. These nationshave revived hope in the Nubia of tomorrow as it becomesa symbol for Egypt, like the star Sothis, as a harbingerof the life-giving floods of the Nile.

If one wished to summarize the Nubian campaign in asentence, there could be none more appropriate than thewords of the Director-General of Unesco when he said,"Faith in an ideal can move mountains."

CHRISTIANE DESROCHES-NOBLECOURT is Curator of the

Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Louvre Museum, Paris, andUnesco Consultant to the Documentation Centre on Ancient Egyptin Cairo. She has carried out many archaeological excavations inUpper Egypt and has written numerous works on Egyptology. Oneof these. " Life and Death of a Pharoah : Tutankhamen ". is beingpublished in ten countries: U.K. ed.. Rainbird Ltd., London; U.S.ed.. New York Graphic Society, New York.

AMADA

A whole templemoved on rails

On the left bank of the Nile, about 200 kilometres south of

Aswan, a notable feat of engineering has been taking place.

Here, the jewel-temple of Amada, built over 3,000 years ago

during the New Empire was being transported to its now

oasis site as a single unit over a distance of 2.600 metres

(1.6 miles) and raised to a height of 65 metres (215 feet)to set two world records for horizontal and vertical displace¬

ment. The seven halls of the temple are decorated with rich

inscriptions and paintings of delicate beauty. It was considered

impossible to dismantle the building stone by stone. Thomethod adopted is the one employed for moving various

types of buildings on rails even over unstable terrain. Vehicles

carrying hydraulic jacks (above) maintain constant supportwhile compensating for variations in the grade of the railbed.

The moving force comes from special double-action jackswhich are anchored on the rails after each inch by inch ope¬

ration. These are activated by two high pressure hydraulic

pumps. Drawings below show, from left to right, concretesupports placed under the temple; the building will be sta¬

bilized to prevent any movement of blocks, and finally removedon vehicles set on three sets of tracks to compensate for Tiding

and descending slopes and curves. The operations are being

carried out by French engineers at a cost of $237,000 after

United Arab Republic dismantling of the front of the sanctuary.

Drawings by Sainraot and Brice

CALENDAR OF

MONUMENTAL

OPERATIONS

1960:

Temple of Debod, north chapel of Taffeh,kiosk of Kertassi : dismantled by the Anti¬quities Service of the United Arab Republic.

1962

Temples of Dendur, of Dakka and of Mahar-raqah : dismantled by U.A.R. AntiquitiesService.

1962-63:

Temple of Kalabsha: dismantled, transferredand re-erected by the government of theFederal Republic of Germany at its ownexpense.

MAHARRAQAH

1963:

Kiosk of Kertassi: re-erected by the U.A.R.Antiquities Service. Temple of Aksha : sculp¬tured blocks removed and transported to thenew museum at Khartoum in Sudan thanksto the financial contribution from France.

Tomb of Djehuty-Hotep at Debeira East:painted scenes in the first chamber were cutout and taken to the new museum at Khar¬

toum, by the Sudanese Antiquities Service.

Temple of Buhen: dismantled and transportedto the new museum at Khartoum throughfinancial contributions by the U.K. and theU.S.A.

WADI ES SEBUA

ELLESY

KASR IBRIM

1964:

10

Temple of Derr: dismantled and cut out ofthe rock by the U.A.R. Antiquities Service.

Temple of Wadi-es-Sebua : cut out anddismantled thanks to a U.S. financial contri¬

bution, supplemented by one from the U.A.R.

Temple of Beit el Wali : cut out of the rock(U.S. contribution).

Tomb of Pennut at Aniba : removed from the

rock (U.S. contribution).

Temple of Amada: front portion dismantledby the U.A.R. Antiquities Service; remainingportion now being transported in its entiretyby rails for re-erection on a higher location(French contribution).

Temple of Gerf-Hussein: certain elementsand sculptures cut out of the rock by theU.A.R. Antiquities Service.

Temple of Jebel Shams : stele to be cut outthis year by the U.A.R. Antiquities Service.

Abu Simbel: protective works being raisedprior to removal of temples.

Temple of Kumma at Semna East: dismantledand transported to Khartoum museum (Nether¬lands contribution).

Temple of Semna West: dismantled andtaken to Khartoum museum (Belgian contri¬bution).

m

ABU SIMBEL (

A^£BU ODAfoUSTUL *

FARAS \* JEBEL SH*MS*< ^ \ y<r£ P1 l̂é^.IJE'EfEIRA EAST

ISAKSHA 1\

*

y

BU>rtNy

3O Wadi Haifa

y

y i. 2nd cataract

s MIRGISSA àKi.

ASKUT

SEMNA WEST

GEMAI

SEMNA EAST (KUMMA)

3rd cataract (Dal) NUBIA

Grey shading shows the outline of the man-made lake(about 300 miles long) that will be formed when thewaters of the Aswan High Dam reach maximum level. ,Names underlined are temples and monuments alreadydismantled and removed from the threatened area.

HOW ABU SIMBEL

WILL BE SAVED by

Karl Heinz Martini

These giant metalpiles driven intothe ground beforethe Great Templeof Abu Simbel

form the core of a

cofferdam of rocks

and earth that will

shut off the templefrom the risingwaters of the Nile

while rescue ope¬rations proceed.

© Jean Sonnier

THE salvage of the Abu Simbel temples is nowfully under way.

Yet a year and a half ago, the prospects for their pre¬servation had become very uncertain. The famous liftingproject conceived by the Italian firm Italconsult (seeThe Unesco Courier, October 1961) had to be abandonedbecause of the high cost of the operation. The UnitedArab Republic and Unesco searched for a less expensivemethod. Different proposals were made, among theman extremely interesting scheme devised by the Frenchengineer, Professor Albert Caquot, for floating the twotemples up on giant pontoons.

The Government of the U.A.R. finally decided in favourof a salvage project to cut the temples into blocks conceivedby the Swedish engineering firm Vattenbyggnadsbyran ofStockholm. The execution of this operation has beenentrusted to the International Joint Venture under theleadership of Hochtief AG, the company which had alreadyeffected the dismantling, transfer and re-erection of thetemple of Kalabsha under the sponsorship of the FederalRepublic of Germany.

The Joint Venture includes the following firms : HochtiefAG, Essen (Federal Republic of Germany), Atlas Company,Cairo (U.A.R.), Grands Travaux de Marseille, Paris (France),Impregilo, Milan (Italy), Skanska, Stockholm (Sweden),and Sentab, Stockholm (Sweden).

Agreements for the execution of the project and forinternational participation therein were concluded betweenthe donor states and Unesco and between Unesco and

the U.A.R.; the government of the U.A.R. signed thecontract with the Joint Venture on November 16, 1963,

and the work began immediately. The project Is to costbetween $32,000,000 and $36,000,000.

Since it had proved impossible to envisage transportingeach temple as a single whole, the principle now appliedinvolved dismantling and cutting the monuments into blocksof no more than 30 tons in weight, transporting theseblocks to a position in the neighbourhood of the originalsite but higher up, and reassembling them on that location.

This very difficult operation is being carried out inthree stages : first, the hills containing the temples mustbe excavated so as to expose the buildings' themselves.Secondly, each monument must be cut out ; the blocksmust be transported with every possible precaution toprevent damage and temporarily stored until all have beenremoved. Thirdly, the temples are to be re-erected at thenew site with the same orientation as before, and their

surroundings must be reconstituted so as to give them,as far as possible, the appearance they had originally.

The ground level of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel is

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11

ABU SIMBEL

(Cont'd)

IE

SALVAGE

OPERATION

an artist's

view

An artist's conceptionof the salvage opera¬tions now under wayat Abu Simbel. Façadesof the temples will beprotected and reinforcedby giant sloping sand-fills made of compacteddune sand (here shownas transparent, coveringonly half of façade).Plans then call for the

careful excavation ofthe mountain rock above

and behind the templesto enable dismantling ofroofs and walls of the

temple rooms. Exca¬vations will be carried

out without use of ex¬

plosives to avoid harm¬ful vibrations. Giant

tube will provide ac¬cess to interior. Cof¬

ferdam is shown in

foreground with road¬ways up to new site.

Drawing byGunter Radtke-Hochtief

122 metres above sea level (a metre is just under ayard) and that of Queen Nefertari's Small Temple is only120 metres. This means that the water level of the newHigh Dam reservoir which began to fill up this year wouldflood the temples before they could be removed if noexceptional measures were taken to protect them tem¬porarily.

In order to shut the temples off from the rising watera special cofferdam has been designed and top prioritygiven to its construction. The cofferdam is about 360metres long starting from a point south of the GreatTemple and rejoining the cliff to the north of the SmallTemple. When completed, it will be about 25 metres highabove river bed and the crest will be 135 metres abovesea level. It is formed of a line of steel sheet piling,24 metres in height, penetrating into the river bed downto the bedrock, with above that, a concrete lintel, onemetre high, and on the top another line of steel sheeting,

12 13 metres in height. On either side of this barrier rockfillmaterial is being accumulated.

The building of the cofferdam took on a particularly

dramatic character in the autumn of 1964 because theseason of the flood water level of the Nile proved tobe exceptionnally long. It was necessary to complete thecofferdam above the level originally scheduled, and thecrews of the Joint Venture found themselves workingboth day and night in order to reach the needed heightin time. Meanwhile, several pumping stations have beeninstalled to serve as a de-watering system for the areabetween the temples and the cofferdam as the waterlevel of the Nile rises. The water is to be directly dis¬charged into a drainage pipeline.

All work on the cofferdam will have been completedbefore summer 1965. The reservoir level will rise abovethe cofferdam in January 1967, but the monuments willhave been removed long before then.

The hill above each of the temples (rising 30 metresabove the top of the Great Temple and 40 metres abovethat of the Small Temple) is to be excavated to within80 centimetres (2 1/2 feet) of their ceilings and aroundthe sides of both monuments. This means removing150,000 cubic metres of rock (approximately 300,000 tons).

The excavation will be carried out by means of rippers,pneumatic hammers, compressed-air drills, and rockchisels. A chute at either side of each temple will bringdown the excavated material, which is being used to helpfill the cofferdam, No explosives can be used in thisoperation; they might damage ceilings, walls andstatuary, which already show cracks and fissures incertain places.

At the same time, scaffolding is being put up in allthe rooms of both temples in order to support theceilings and the sides when they are separated fromthe surrounding rock. Forty per cent of the scaffolding,of which a total of 150 tons will be necessary, was alreadyinstalled in September 1964. A huge tube is to be installedto give passage to the entrance of each temple whilesand is filled above the façades to protect them.

Some of the sandstone at Abu Simbel is extremelyfragile, and it will be strengthened by the injection ofchemical agents. A specialized firm is now testing thedifferent synthetic resin products to be used for this

purpose. Not only must some of the blocks be streng¬thened as a whole the sandstone sometimes shows so

little cohesion that the blocks would break apart whencut or lifted but the edges of inscribed surfaces mustbe specially treated along the cuts to safeguard againstcorners breaking off during cutting. The stone hooksfor the lifting of the blocks will be sunk into the blockswith a synthetic resin compound.

In parts of the hill outside the immediate temple area,tests are being performed to ascertain the exact resultsof each different type of cutting equipment : wire saws,disc saws, chain saws and several types of hand saws.

Only after all the tests are completed will the actualcutting and lifting of the blocks themselves be undertaken.At this stage cutting will be executed under the constantsurveillance of archaeologists. Every precaution is beingtaken to prevent aesthetic damage being done to the monu¬ments.

For each temple, two guy rope derricks capable of

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13

14

ABU SIMBEL (Cont'd)

lifting 20 to 30 tons will remove the blocks as theyare cut out on platform lorries of a special type whichwill transport them to the storage area behind the oldsite and near the new position to be occupied by thetemples.

The blocks to be removed in both temples total15,000 tons (11,500 tons for the Great Temple and 3,500tons for the Small Temple). In view of the need topreserve some of the surroundings of the monuments,several thousand more elements of smaller dimensions

will also be taken away. The blocks will be stored withindividual protective coverings and numbering todetermine their exact positions in the edifices, until thetransfer is completed. Special handling will of coursebe required for the bas-reliefs and statues.

The temples will be re-erected in a position about 64metres higher and 180 metres farther inland from theriver as compared with the present site. The re-erectionoperations will be similar to the dismantling, only inreverse order. At first, the blocks will be assembledupon an internal scaffolding, individual blocks beinganchored to or suspended from a reinforced concretesupporting structure on the top of which concrete domeswill be constructed to carry the overlying rock. Thefaçades of the temples will put up at the same time asthe reinforced concrete domes.

Afterwards, the surrounding area will be landscapedand treated so as to recreate the original appearance.The orientation of the temples will be the same as before.The whole operation is scheduled to be completed insix years from start to finish.

The organization of the work yards at Abu Simbelis almost as arduous a matter as the salvage operationitself. In the first place the project is being carriedout in a very remote area. Abu Simbel is 280 km (175miles) from Aswan and 1,500 km (nearly 1,000 miles)from Alexandria. Equipment which must be importedfrom foreign countries takes a considerable amount oftime to reach the site. For instance, from Hamburg toAbu Simbel a minimum of eight weeks must be expected.Moreover, the Nile is now closed by the Aswan High Damand equipment transported by river must at this point betaken overland.

However, the work of the Joint Venture is now

facilitated by special means of transport. There arethirteen boats operating for the Joint Venture of whichsix units have been hired from the U.A.R. Government.Furthermore, two small airplanes, each with threepassenger seats, are transporting urgently requiredmaterial staff. The government has also allowed the JointVenture to set up a wireless communication system onnormal frequency between Abu Simbel and Aswan.

At present, some forty foreign and ten Egyptiantechnicians and 750 local labourers are working at thesite. At the peak point in the operation it is expectedthat there will be at least 50 foreign and 40 Egyptiantechnicians and about 800 labourers.

Climatic conditions are naturally very severe, foreveryone, but are particularly difficult for staff of Europeanorigin. However, special housing is now being providedfor labourers and staff. A nearby river port and an airfieldensure communications.

European staff are generally sent out to Abu Simbelfor two-year periods. As soon as the villages arecompletely ready, wives and children of staff will jointhem. The problem of schooling will be a somewhatdifficult one, the children being from several differentcountries ; and indeed Abu Simbel has become a veritableBabel of languages where Arabic, German, Swedish,Italian, French, English and Spanish are to be heard.

The men who are working on the Abu Simbel project,most of whom knew nothing about the temples, theirhistory or their cultural value before coming here, areall vitally interested in making this difficult projectsucceed, and they have become fascinated with thehistory and art of the cultural treasures that they arehelping to preserve. When on the new site of the GreatTemple, the first rays of the sun penetrate into the innersanctuary exactly as before, modern technology will haveachieved a result rivalling that of the ancient Egyptiansthemselves of which not only those who have directlyworked to make such a gigantic achievement possiblebut the world as a whole can be justly proud,

K. H. MARTINI is a member of HochtiefA. G. of Essen (Fed. Rep. ofGermany), the firm directing the demanding operations atAbu Simbel.

National Institute of Geography. Paris This is the first time that the bas-reliefs in the hall of Osirian Pillars at Abu Simbel have been photographedtogether as a single scene in its full sweep. The ¡mages occupy the southern wall of the hall of the GreatTemple of Rameses II and recount his many exploits. The photo was made from a series of individual pictu¬res by the French National Institute of Geography, using special photographic and topometric techniques.

Drawing by VattenbyggnadsbyranStockholm

Cross section of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel showing where the moun¬tain of rock will be cut away. Diagonal lines indicate that facade and interiorceilings will be 80 centimetres (2 y2 ft.) thick. Outlined in black is concretereinforced backing which will be introduced after the temple is reconstruc¬ted at its new site. Reinforced concrete domes will be built above each temple.

Some of the sandstone of Abu

Simbel is extremely friable. On thehillside near the temple tests aremade (left) with different kinds ofcutting equipment including specialhand saws. Right, a bas-relief iscut from the façade of the GreatTemple. Where the stone isexceptionally fragile it will bereinforced with injections of syn¬thetic resin. This is especiallyimportant when the stone bearsancient inscriptions that may bedamaged during cutting operation.

Vattenbyggnadsbyran. Stockholm Hochtief

&*&*?

Improgilo

Hochtief

Above, standing out In theforeground of this aerialview of the left bank of

the Nile is the hillside from

which the temples of Ram¬eses II and Queen Nefer-

tari were hewn over 3,000

years ago. In front of theGreat Temple work pro¬ceeds on a cofferdam which

is to run 360 metres

(1,200 feet) to a pointnorth of the smaller tem¬

ple. When completed in1965 the dam will rise

25 metres (80 feet) abovethe river bed. Pumpingstations have been in¬

stalled to deal with anyinfiltration from the Nile.

Left, temple façade is halfhidden behind generatorsproducing electricity for thepumps and machines nowin action at Abu Simbel.

The total power developedby all the equipment beingused on the site is about

15,000 H.P. requiring 5,000litres of diesel oil daily.

FARASincomparable gallery

of 169 frescoes

ONE of the most resoundingvictories of the International

Campaign to Safeguard the Monumentsof Nubia has been won at .Faras in

the Republic of the Sudan. ~,:ln theancient cathedral of Faras, buried forcenturies beneath the sands, the

Polish Archaeological Mission led byProfessor K. Michalowski has broughtto light an incomparable collection offrescoes and has saved them in record

time from the waters rising behindthe Aswan High Dam.

Altogether 169 paintings wereuncovered, Including such spectacularworks as a fresco of the Nativitymeasuring seven metres by four. Noone had suspected that Faras hidsuch an Important cache of artistictreasures. ^

In February 1963, Louis Christophe,Unesco Co-ordinator of Archaeolo¬

gical Missions in Egyptian Nubia,reported to the Unesco Service forthe Monuments of Nubia, in Paris:"I have received a. report that thePolish mission uncovered 123 Christian

frescoes and this number is expectedto rise to 150. Querying this astonish¬ing news I was told that the removalof a fresco revealed a still more

ancient painting beneath. In mostcases two or three frescoes are

painted one above the other."

Some frescoes were painted by thealfresco method (painting on plasterthat is still humid); though most weredone on dry plaster. The majority aremagnificently preserved and the vividand delicate colours seem as fresh

as the day they were applied. Thesubjects include scenes from the Oldand New Testaments, the Nativity, theCrucifixion and the Three Young MenIn the Fiery Furnace. There arepaintings of the Virgin, St. Michaeland the Apostles, and a series ofportraits of the bishops who weresuccessively enthroned at Faras.

"We discovered a complete basilicaat Faras", says Professor Michalow¬ski. "Engulfed by the sands, it hadbeen abandoned in the 12th centurywhen northern Nubia came completelyunder Moslem rule. It is built of stone

and fired brick in contrast to most

other buildings of the period, including

the many churches scattered along theNile, whose mudbrick construction hassuffered from weather and calamities.

Its stones were taken from the ruins

of temples raised by Thutmosis III andRameses II. This basilica dates from

the 7th century. Its five naves are arare find in Nubia where most churches

have only three. It is dedicated to theVirgin and Saint Michael.

"During 1962 and 1963 we graduallycleared the building, and just recentlywe brought to light a collection offrescoes that will become a landmark

in the history of Byzantine art. In factno future history of Byzantine art willbe complete unless it includes anaccount of the paintings at Faras."

The Polish mission began to live anastonishing adventure as it literallypeeled away the walls of the basilicastrip by strip; previously there had

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a

©

In its November, 1962 issue The Unesco

Courier published tho striking photographabove showing a fresco as it began toemerge from the sands burying the cathedralat Faras in Sudanese Nubia. Below, com¬

pletely uncovered, the fresco shows thoArchangel Michael protecting the threeyoung men from the flames of the furnace.

FARAS (Cont'd)

been nothing about these walls tosuggest that Nubian painters hadcovered them over and over againwith religious images, although the siteof Faras itself had, of course, beenconsidered as a potentially rich fieldfor archaeological remains.

Under the Pharoahs of the Middle

Kingdom Faras was an importantfortress; later it became the site ofa New Kingdom temple and ofbuildings raised during the Meroitlcperiod. Later still It was the capitalof the Kingdom of Nobetea whichcovered the north of Nubia.

During this period Faras was themonastic and cultural centre of

Christian Nubia (where religion tookroot and developed under the directinfluence of Byzantium). According toevidence uncovered by recent exca¬vations, the administrative centre ofthe kingdom was probably at KasrIbrim (see page 33). The amazing findsat Faras all date from this period ofChristian cultural expansion in Nubia.

"Engraved in a niche on one sideof the basilica", reported ProfessorMichalowski, " we found the names of27 bishops. Since then we haveuncovered their portraits. These areremarkably true to life. The age, racialorigin and other characteristics of eachperson are clearly shown. Most ofthese bishops, by the way, were ofAfrican origin. Finally we discoveredtheir skeletons burled In the cemeterynearby. These were examined byProfessor Rogalski, an anthropologistfrom Warsaw University, who con¬firmed the perfect similarity betweenthe facial structures in the portraitsand the skulls."

NIOW came the task of savingthe paintings. To remove

them from the ancient walls demanded

infinite skill and patience. In an ope¬ration of this kind even a slightmistake may do irreparable damage toa masterpiece. And risks increasewhen frescoes are like those at Faras,

most of them painted on a dry plasterbackground 1,200 years old and thusextremely brittle.

First the frescoes were cleaned and

then sprayed with a protectivecoating. Afterwards a sheet of tissuepaper was applied followed by layersof muslin impregnated with hotbeeswax. When this had dried the

plaster was cut away from the wall.It sounds simple enough; in reality itis delicate and arduous work (seephotos).

In the conditions

even more difficult

team of specialistspowering heat and,the operation increased beyond allexpectation, in an indescribable

<n atmosphere of tension. Each newdiscovery seemed to lead to yet

at Faras it was

than usual. The

worked in over¬

as the scale of

CONT'D ON PAGE 20

On these pages we present anextraordinary series of photographstaken by the Swiss photographer,Georg Gerster, which show stepby step how the frescoes discov¬ered at Faras were freed from

the sand, removed from the walls

and prepared for transport andlater restoration. Left, workerscart off last basketfuls of sand

from the chapel revealing one ofthe most magnificent of the Farasfrescoes The Nativity. It measures7x4 m (below, left). How thefrescoes were got off the walls islittle short of miraculous. Rightfirst the fresco is cleaned and

sprayed with a protective coating,and tissue paper is applied to thesurface, impregnated with hotbeeswax. Far right, phase two :veil of muslin is spread over thetissue paper and again hot bees¬wax is ironed on to it. As the wax is

applied the motifs of the paintingappear. The size and conditionof the fresco determines how

many layers of muslin are applied.Photos © Dr Georg Gerster, Zurich

A FRESCO IS REMOVEDa story in pictures by G. Gerster

When the fresco is thoroughly dry and stiff it is gently pried awayfrom the wall with various instruments. This is an operation demand¬

ing infinite patience and skill especially when separating one layerof paintings from another. As many as three layers of paintingshave been found on some walls. Professor Michalowski leader of

Polish Archaeological Mission in Nubia (on right) supervises work.

FARAS (Cont'd)

A FRESCO IS REMOVED (Cont'd)

20

another. To win the race againstthe waters of the Nile, ProfessorMichalowski was finally obliged tomobilize the services of every availablespecialist he could find In Poland.

In May 1964, fifty-seven cases filledwith frescoes left Faras by boat forWadi Haifa, a Sudanese town that has

already been partly evacuated by itspeople. From here twenty-five caseswere sent on to Khartoum, capital ofthe Republic of the Sudan, withfrescoes that will eventually be placedin the city's new museum.

Other cases, carrying 52 frescoeswhich the Government of the Sudan

has presented to Poland, were takento Port Sudan and embarked on a

Polish freighter.

In Khartoum conservation work

is being supervised by Josef Gazy, aPolish specialist who was responsiblefor their removal from the church at

Faras. Similar operations have alreadybegun in the workshops of theWarsaw Museum.

The frescoes will be given minute

examination on both sides and everydetail of their condition, even downto the traces left by termites andburrowing wasps, will be recorded..Specialists will go over them, studyingirregularities and blemishes, the under¬lays of paint and any incrustations thatcould cause damage or discoloration.

Other studies may throw light onseveral mysteries. For example, howdid artists of the 7th century A.D.prepare paints whose brilliance re¬mains undimmed after so many centu¬ries? We may know the answer aftersamples of these paints have beenanalyzed by the laboratory at the War¬saw Museum.

But shall we ever know the names

of the artists of Faras? The discoveries

there have shown that the Christian

art of Nubia, unlike the Egyptian Copticart, had origins closely linked withthe art of Byzantium. The paintersof Nubia indeed drew inspiration fromthis source but it is their own origina¬lity, sense of the picturesque and akind of naivete that has earned a uniqueplace in Christian art for the worksthey painted in Faras.

Photos © Dr. Georg Gerster, Zurich Above, from left to right, fresco is completely detached from wall. All superfluous mud iscarefully scraped from the back and the painting is then attached to a prepared woodenframework. The fresco is then pulled on to a wooden packing frame for its final journey.Below, twenty arms lift the Nativity across the sands as it leaves the ruins of Faras enroute for Khartoum. Of the 169 frescoes unearthed at Faras, Poland has been granted 52.

IRONING OUT FRESCOES. Photos on this page show conservation work onthousand-year-old Faras frescoes now being carried out at Warsaw museum. Left,specialists undertake minute examination of front and back of each fresco. Tracingpaper is used to note slightest anomaly, incrustations, etc. Below, back of frescoesis scraped down almost to the painted layer and the plaster is then treated chemicallyto eliminate harmful salts which could alter and damage colours. Above, ironing ope¬ration on front of fresco melts the beeswax and muslin layers are removed one by one.

22

Colour page, oppositeMachines and construction material crowd the area before the Great Temple of AbuSimbel as work begins in spring of 1964 on protective cofferdam, 360 metres long.

Impregilo.

Centre colour pagesLeft : Sanctuary in splints. After being dismantled stone by stone, the Kalabsha temple,as big as Notre Dame cathedral, has been rebuilt 30 kilometres from its original site.

Right: Before being moved to safety in 1964, these sphinxes lining the sacred avenueleading to the temple of Wadi-es-Sebua were submerged for nine months of theyear by the encroaching Nile. Under the avenue a new temple has been found.

Bottom : Pylon of the Wadi-es-Sebua temple during dismantling operations in thesummer of 1 964. The temple will be rebuilt in the same area but on a higher level.

Photos © Tony Saulnier

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RETURN

TO THE

LAND OF KUSH

by Rex Keating

WHEN in the spring of this year I stepped off theplane at Wadi Haifa, exactly two years had gone

by since last I set foot in Sudanese Nubia. Only twoyears, yet in that short time the vitality that for so longhas given shape and substance to the Nubian conceptof life had ebbed. From the banks of the Nile deserted

villages stared out at me like empty eye sockets. Thecharacteristic sound of the sakieh wheels half screech,

half groan lifting life-giving water on to the land wasabsent.

Already the desert was moving in and sand chokedthe irrigation ditches. The strips of cultivation on islandsand riverbank alike were yellowing and withered, theirfrugal harvests ungathered. For the Nubians their exodushad begun. This ancient people, calm of mien, independent

Colour page, opposite

A total of 169 frescoes has been brought to light by the PolishArchaeological Mission in Nubia in the cathedral buried beneaththe sands at Faras. They are as brightly coloured as when theywere painted in the 7th century A.D. (see page 17). Above left,detail of The Nativity (7 * 4.30 metres) depicting The Three Kings.Below: Head of a woman. (Details of frescoes from Faras).Right : Egyptian funerary mask with pectoral decoration (1750 B.C.)discovered at Mirgissa in Sudanese Nubia. These masks whichare made of plaster with a backing of cloth have a great varietyof colours and decorative forms. (See page 2.)Bottom left: Removal of a wooden coffin from the necropolis

at Mirgissa 3,500 years after its burial.Bottom right: Funerary statuettes of granite and marble fromMirgissa. They date back almost 4,000 years.

Photos © André Vila - French Archaeological Mission

of mind was leaving the beloved home land, for a settlementprepared for them 900 miles away, in east Sudan.

Their former dwellings of mud-brick, cool, spaciousand wholly satisfying to the eye, products of the verysoil of Nubia and perfectly adapted to meet the rigoursof its climate, soon will be transformed by the embraceof the Nile into so many shapeless heaps of silt. Thecharming little riverside hotel at Wadi Haifa, well-remem¬bered by travellers journeying between the Sudan andEgypt, and known latterly to the legions of foreign touristseager for a last glimpse at the doomed monuments andworks of the past, will retain for a while a watery sem¬

blance of its identity, built as it is of stone. Also of stone,the railhead buildings, docks and warehouses and, possiblythe mosque and the house in which Kitchener planned thestrategy of the River War campaign, will likewise survivebelow water long after the shops and houses of the littletown have disintegrated.

Contrasting sharply with the absence of life in Nubianvillage and cultivation was the increase in archaeologicalactivity. Little groups of archaeologists seemed to beeverywhere measuring, surveying, digging or emergingfrom one or other of the countless graves they haveexcavated.

As an example, the average number of archaeologistsand other specialists from the four countries of the Scan¬dinavian Joint Expedition has been twenty. In four highlysuccessful seasons of survey and digging on the eastbank of the Nile they have excavated everything ceme¬teries, settlements and churches recovering in the pro¬cess a multitude of objects of museum standard. The1961-2 season had produced a rich harvest of C-groupremains enabling the Scandinavians to demonstrate how 27the culture of this remarkable African people had been

CONT'D ON NEXT PAGE

LAND OF KUSH (Cont'd)

The valley of lost rivers

totally absorbed by that of neighbouring Egypt by 1500 B.C.The origins of the C-group, however, have yet to bediscovered.

The season of 1962-63 had enabled the Scandinavians

to turn back the clock of history even further, to well before2000 B.C., with the finding of stratified settlements thatyielded valuable information on early Nubia, with dataon the palaeolithic inhabitants of the area, ranging throughneolithic to the A-group people forerunners of the C-group.During this season alone, the expedition cleared andrecorded some two thousand burials, from A-group to

early Christian a time spectrum of forty-five centuries. Itwas from an A-group grave of a woman that there cametwo unique figurines of unburnt clay, one of a mature female,the other of a young girl just emerging from childhood; theyare masterpieces of prehistoric art.

Another remarkable and inexplicable A-group intermentwas that of a man who had buried with him a mineralogicalcollection of all the many types of stones of the neigh¬bourhood ochres, amethyst, chert, quartz, granite, etc.This was at Abka and I was taken to a desolate valley

nearby which to me was as moving as it was impressive.The valley was filled with black granite boulders smoothedby countless floods and across their polished surfacesmarched animals by the thousand, carved with immenselabour on the iron-hard stone by ancient man. There

were rows of cattle, giraffe, elephant, hippopotamus andother large animals long since extinct in this part of Africaand among them human figures, usually in hunting scenes.The oldest of the carvings, a series of abstract shapes,has been dated to approximately 8000 B.C.. In all, theScandinavians located and recorded in this one valley close

on 3,000 groups of pictographs.

Throughout the four seasons of excavation the Scan¬dinavians have been concerned to find in Nubia cultural

links between ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean culturesand the civilizations of inner Africa. The leader of the

expedition, Professor T. Säwe-Söderberg, believes thatsuch links may well be found in the as yet unexplored

MYSTERIOUS CLAY

FIGURES. These re¬

markable figurines ofunburnt clay (right),depicting, a mature wo¬man and a young girl,came from the graveof a woman in Sudanese

Nubia. They date back5,000 years to the timeof. the "A-people", asarchaeologists term theoriginal inhabitants ofNubia. The Scandina¬

vian Joint Expeditionwhich found these figu¬rines is one of the

many archaeologicalgroups working in Su¬danese Nubia. By lo¬cating and excavatingsettlements, churchesand thousands of tombs

it has helped to shednew light on the historyof early man in Nubia.

Photos © Rex Keating

stretch of the Nile between Semna and the Dal Cataract

(the extreme limit of the area to be flooded) and southof there to Kerma. It is good to know that the first stepis now being taken in the form of a preliminary groundsurvey of this crucial reach of the Nile. The Unesco Mis¬sion to Sudanese Nubia is conducting the survey but Itis, of course, no more than a reconnaissance; the excava¬

tion of the sites located will, one must hope, be under¬

taken by expeditions from abroad.

A few days in Nubia were enough for me to notice amarked change in the pattern of archaeology there. Two

ROCK ART GALLERY. In

a deserted valley near Abkain Sudanese Nubia thousands

of animals including giraffe,elephant and ostrich todayextinct in this part of Africamarch across the polishedsurfaces of the great, blackgranite boulders (photos leftand right). They were carvedon the iron-hard stone byearly man. Some 3,000 groupsof these carvings were recentlyrecorded in a single valley.Further north in Egyptian Nu¬bia similar rock drawings havebeen found by the AustrianArchaeological Mission.Among those ascribed to the"A-Group" people of 5,000years ago one (right above)showsan animal seizing its prey.

Photos © Rex Keating

t

X

years before, the emphasis had been on classical archa¬eology; now it seemed to have shifted to pre-history andpalaeontology with teams from two large U.S. expeditionsvery much in evidence on both sides of the Nile.

Professor Shiner, leader of the expedition of the Museumof New Mexico, told me that they were concentrating onthe excavation of prehistoric sites located during theirsurveys of the two previous seasons. Some twenty spe¬cialists in five separate groups were at work and he rec¬koned they would have cleared around two hundred sitesby the time they left Nubia this year.

Geological evidence indicated that the river Nile oftoday ¡s a relatively new stream less than 50,000 yearsold, and that before the Nile cut its present bed throughthe sandstone, several great rivers flowed across theplateau. And along these streams lived the makersof the stone artifacts that prehistorians term "tools". Theabundance of artifacts suggests that prehistoric man foundthis part of Africa a most congenial place in which tolive with a climate very different from that of today. Habi¬tation sites have been found 20 miles out In the desert;

CONT'D ON NEXT PAGE

Drawing, Austrian Archaeological Mission

29

LAND OF KUSH (Cont'd)

A mighty walled city

emerges from the sand

nowadays no man could survive more than a few hundredyards from the river.

Apparently about 10,000 years ago an enormous increasein rainfall resulted in a Nile discharge at least three timesthat of the present day. Elephant, giraffe, hippopotamusand other large fauna proliferated, which would accountfor the numberless pictographs of these large animalsfound everywhere in Nubia. Then around 3000 B.C. asteadily decreasing rainfall brought about a correspondingdesiccation of the landscape until Nubia became whatwe see today an arid wilderness of sand and rock, enfold¬ing pockets of cultivated soil and palm trees.

Professor Shiner was enthusiastic about the richness

of the prehistoric sites: "In America we have a relativelylate development in the history of man. To the best of ourknowledge man has been in the New World only a veryshort time, and characteristically we think of a very earlycivilization as being something from not more than tenor fifteen thousand years ago. In Nubia, ten or fifteenthousand years is just scratching the surface. On theearliest sites in America we might dig for a month andfind a dozen tools. An extremely rich site might producefifty tools. Here in Nubia we find hundreds in a day...the quantities are absolutely enormous."

Dr. Papworth, of the University of Colorado's Missionto Nubia, spoke of how the twenty or so specialists ofthe expedition were working in the fields of palaeontologyand physical anthropology. He enthused, like ProfessorShiner, over the prehistoric remains: "...never before haveI literally walked through fields of handaxes."

commands wonderful views of the Second Cataract and

its myriad islands. It stands on a precipitous cliff andimmediately below is a sandy plain extending to the river'sedge.

It was in this plain that the French archaeologists founda complex of fortified walls, towers and bastions completelyburied in sand, which had preserved them so well thatwalls stood all of thirty feet high enclosing staircases androoms with roofs intact. Subsequently the fortificationswere found to extend along the river bank for fully a kilo¬metre to the north. In the course of digging, a town

of the Middle Kingdom period was revealed, laid out withmilitary precision and with each house enclosed by curiousundulating walls. So vast is the site that when the 1963-64season came to an end, the sandy plain to the south was

still unexplored.

Now, more than ever, Mirgissa poses the question: whythe stupendous display of military strength? In the remainsof the temple inside the upper fortress the French Missionhas found the answer, or so Professor Vercoutter believes.

In a shrine dedicated to Hathor they came across a smallwooden stele bearing the word "Iken". Iken was theentrepot of ancient Egypt in Nubia, where the caravansand ships bearing the gold of Nubia and the rich produceof the lands of the south came to store and tranship their

cargoes for eventual on-carriage to Egypt. According toa stele of Senusret Ml found at Semna, the king ordersthe fortress garrison there to prevent any Nubians goingnorth except to Iken for trading purposes. The whereaboutsof Iken have long been disputed. At last, the immenselystrong military defences may be explained.

N:I O doubt eyebrows will be raised among themore conservative of field archaeologists at the

action of the Colorado expedition in bringing the worldof statistics and information processing to Nubia. For thestudy of human skeletal material, Dr. Papworth and a col¬league have developed a punchcard system whereby a singleskeleton can be broken down into some 52,000 different

"attribute combinations."

Such data, programmed and fed into a computer, makespossible instant comparison between populations. A sam¬ple of some 500 skeletons of various periods has beencollected for processing in this way and it is hoped thatnew light will be thrown on the origins and migrationsof the peoples of Nubia over the millenia.

Probably the most significant finds in the field of pre¬history have been the discovery of palaeolithic "houses"by the New Mexico expedition and a palaeolithic cemeteryby the expedition of Colorado. In the latter fossil hominidskeletons were buried in association with palaeolithictools.

Far and away the most spectacular excavation now goingon in Sudanese Nubia is at Mirgissa where the FrenchArchaeological Mission led by Professor J. Vercoutter hasbeen making remarkable discoveries in and around theEgyptian Middle Kingdom fortress, (circa 2000 B.C). It

30 is gigantic, and literally millions of mud-bricks, strengthenedwith wooden beams by the thousand, went into its construc¬

tion. High above the west bank of the Nile, the fortress

ROYAL SON OF KUSH. Since 1961, the Argentine hassent several teams of archaeologists to work in SudaneseNubia. In collaboration with French archaeologists, theseteams cleared the temple of Aksha, and dismantled parts ofit including important reliefs, which have been taken toKhartoum. The Argentine Mission, led by ProfessorA. Rosenwasser, made significant discoveries during 1962-63: five chapels raised by the Pharaoh Seti I, father ofRameses II, and a fragment (below) of the door leading toa chapel dedicated by the Nubian viceroy, Heqanakht toRameses II. The viceroy is seen here in ceremonial dress.Above him is inscribed : "Heqanakht, Royal Son of Kush".

A. Rosenwasser

Rex Keating This year, thirty-five centuries after it was built, the temple of the fortress of Semna West (Suda¬nese Nubia) was dismantled stone by stone. It will be reconstructed with other rescued templesin the gardens of a new museum at Khartoum, capital of the Sudan. Here, huge blocks of stone,some weighing three tons, are dragged along a "railway" of planks to a raft on tho Nile.

North of the fortress the excavators found a roadwayof wooden poles rather like the sleepers of a railroad. Thepoles were about 40 centimetres apart and overlaid witha skin of silt. This seems to have been a slipway for the"dragging" of ships round the edge of the dangerous rapidsnearby; indeed footprints of sailors who pulled the vesselsalong the slippery mud surface 4,000 years ago were clearlyvisible. This "dragging" operation is often referred to inancient texts but never explained. The slipway extendsfor two kilometres and may be even longer. Here is adiscovery of the first importance and if other rapids inthe "Belly of Stone", as this part of the Second Cataractis named, were to be examined, similar slipways wouldprobably be unearthed.

Other important discoveries at Mirgissa have been acache of some 3,000 fragments of "execration texts" bearingthe names of many of the tribes regarded by the Egyptiansas enemies, and an unplundered cemetery of the "Kerma"culture. The graves yielded examples of the beautifulKerma pottery and many other funerary objects. Kerma iswell over 100 miles to the south and its African culture had

important links with Egypt. This cemetery marks the mostnortherly point of penetration by the Kerma people yetdiscovered.

Out of the desert, two kilometres to the west of the

upper fortress is the pharaonic cemetery. Unplunderedtombs have yielded a wealth of fine objects of the EgyptianMiddle and New Kingdom periods. Many bodies of bothsexes were found and, curiously, there seems to havebeen a predominence of elderly persons. There wereno children in the cemetery but in the upper fortress some

thirty large pottery jars were uncovered, each containinga still-born child.

The French Mission plans to continue work at Mirgissafor another two seasons, if the flood waters permit. Is

it too much to hope that they may yet uncover the ware¬houses of this ancient transit fort ? For the historian Mir¬

gissa could prove of inestimable value if thoroughlyexcavated. But to clear thoroughly so complex a sitecovering many hundreds of acres, would require severalseasons of work by an expedition far larger than thepresent one, which seldom has had more than four on the

scientific strength. Despite the sterling efforts of theFrench Mission, Mirgissa bids fair to become a majorcasualty of the High Dam.

Some ten miles north of Mirgissa lies that other great

CONT'D ON NEXT PAGE

31

LAND OF KUSH (Cont'd)

Down mahogany rails

to a pontoon raft

Egyptian fortress, Buhen, where the Egypt ExplorationsSociety's expedition under Professor W. B. Emery has thisyear brought to an end eight seasons of excavation. Thefirst thing I noticed at Buhen was the absence of the templeof Queen Hatshepsut which had dominated the fortress.This 18th Dynasty stone temple, the finest in SudaneseNubia, now lies in neatly packed crates at Khartoum, whereI had seen it a few days earlier.

Last season's work was devoted to the clearance of the

earlier Middle Kingdom temple which lay beneath Hatshep-sut's. Unfortunately the 18th Dynasty builders used stonefoundations of enormous size which they drove downthrough the mud-brick structure built some 500 years beforetheir day and largely destroyed it. Nevertheless, ProfessorEmery's excavations have been very satisfactory in revealingdetailed information about building methods used at thattime.

With a perimeter over a mile in length, the fort and Itsassociated military town have been totally cleared andmeasured; with the completion of eight years of work anew chapter in the history of ancient Egyptian architecture,in particular military architecture, has been written. Thelabour of publication will be formidable, Involving close on ahundred plans, elevations and drawings.

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32

HE Egyptian Old Kingdom town discovered onthe outskirts of Buhen in 1961 has been cleared

but was found to be badly denuded. Nevertheless, claysealings firmly dated the place to the middle of the 4th Dy¬nasty and it may have been founded even earlier althoughproof is lacking. Historically, this town is an outstanding¬ly Important discovery since it pushes back the date of theEgyptian occupation of Nubia by some 300 years, to theage of Cheops and the Great Pyramid. It reveals, too,the establishment at this early date of a major industrycopper smelting far from the Egyptian homeland in whatwas considered hostile territory by the early Egyptians.The large copper deposits which once fed the furnaces

cannot be far from Buhen, but unfortunately, they have notbeen traced.

Semna, during the Middle Kingdom period, was thesouthernmost limit of Egyptian influence. There on eachbank of the Nile the Egyptians built a fortress and in thosetwo fortresses five centuries later the Pharaoh Thutmose III

raised stone temples. For three days in the fortress ofSemna West I watched the absorbing spectacle of a Ger¬man architect supervising the dismantling of the templein precisely the reverse order of its construction thirty-fivecenturies before.

The interior of the temple had been filled -with rubbleand outside more rubble extended to roof level. The roof

blocks, each weighing up to three tons, were moved firstand dragged down the rubble slope by a gang of someforty men. Then the level of the rubble was lowered andthe next course of stones removed. And so on downto the foundations.

From the temple roof a double line of mahogany planksran down between the rocks to the bank of the river half

' .

-» *

Above, a vast scroll written in Coptic, found withits counterpart in Arabic in the burial chamber of a14th century bishop at Kasr Ibrim. These importantdocuments authorized the bishop's enthronement inNubia in 1372 A.D. Right, the burial place beneaththe cathedral at Kasr Ibrim with the bishop's clothingamong which the two 16 ft. scrolls were found.

CONT'D ON PAGE 34

Towering 200 feetabove the Nile 35

miles north of Abu

Simbel, the mas¬sive citadel of Kasr

Ibrim has dominat¬ed the river from

its rocky crag forover 3,500 years.

Photos © EgyptExploration Society,London

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THE SCROLLS OF KASR IBRIM

OLLOW the Nile downstream

(northwards) from Abu Simbel

for thirty miles or so and suddenly tower¬ing 200 feet high into the skyline rises arocky, craggy cliff topped by a spread ofruins. This is Kasr Ibrim, fortress and

cemetery, the stage on which 35 centuriesof history have been played.

Expeditions from the Egypt ExplorationSociety (of Great Britain) have beenworking here since 1961 and have foundthe whole area tremendously rich in

archaeological material of all kinds fromthe 18th Dynasty 1570 B.C. down to

doned after the forcible expulsion of theMamelukes by Mohamet Ali.

One of the major and most excitingdiscoveries has come with the excavation

in 1963-1964 under the direction of J.M.

Plumley, Professor of Egyptology at theUniversity of Cambridge, of the remains

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of a vast Christian Church in fact the

finest ecclesiastical building in all Nubiaand the unearthing of the undisturbedburial of a 14th-century Christian bishop.

Amongst his clothing were found two

scrolls each 16 feet long, one, in Coptic,the official notification of the bishop'sconsecration in Old Cairo to the combined

See of Faras and Ibrim in Nubia, the other

its counterpart in Arabic. The date ofthe scrolls is 1372 A.D.

Up to now it was generally believedthat Christianity in Nubia had been givenits deathblow with the Moslem onslaught

bishop's burial and the scrolls as well asother finds demonstrate that far from

being exterminated in Nubia, Christianitysurvived into the 14th and even the 15th

century.

Other excavations carried out duringthe last season at Kasr Ibrim have reco-

Beneath the stairwayof a Christian house

at Kasr Ibrim archae¬

ologists found thisred earthenware potwith black painteddesigns, containingthe nine leather

scrolls written in Old

Nubian seen in the

basket alongside it.

vered further archaeological material ofthe utmost importance. Of special signi¬ficance have been the findings of In¬scribed material in Egyptian hieroglyphsand Meroitic, the discovery of nine lea¬ther scrolls written in Old Nubian found

stored away in a pot under the stairwayof a Christian house, and many fragmentsof manuscripts In Greek, Coptic, Old Nu¬bian and Arabic. Among the Old Nubianmanuscripts some which are undoubtedlyletters are of special interest. The 1961excavations of cemeteries were carried

out under the direction of Professor W.B.

Emery and have added to our knowledge

who inhabited the fortress of Kasr Ibrim

until the latter half of the sixth centurywhen Christianity swept into Nubia.

Much time will be needed to examine

all the material found thus far at Ibrim.

As Professor Plumley has said, "When

this has been studied it will be possibleto fill in some of the details of 3,500 yearsof the successive occupations of the for¬tress by the Ancient Egyptians, the Meroi-tes, the X-group people, the Nubian Chris¬tians, the Bosnians [who came as merce¬naries in the 16th century and settled

down for three hundred years] and theill-starred Mamelukes. It is hoped thatfurther excavation of the site will be

possible, and that more material will be

recovered to throw fresh light upon thelong history of now vanishing Nubia."

LAND OF KUSH (Cont'd)

Something unforeseen happened

and the villagers never came back.

a kilometre away. As each block, chemically treated,wrapped in muslin and bandaged in cotton waste, waslowered down the slope, it was eased into the crate made tohold it and pushed on a metal-shod sled and down the

mahogany rails to the river where a pontoon raft constructedon the site from fifty oil drums and beams of mahogany,received it. The raft, secured to a wire hauser, was pulled

across the fast running Nile to the east bank where thestones were off-loaded to await the trucks that would

carry them on the next stage of the journey to Khartoum.

The temple in the sister fortress of Semna East is slightlysmaller and when he dismantled it some weeks after myvisit, the architect, Mr. F. Hinkel, found intact about fifteen

foundation deposits and, unexpectedly, inscribed stonesof another temple dating from two reigns earlier. The costof dismantling these two temples was borne by the govern¬ments of Belgium and the Netherlands.

In the gardens of the new museum now nearing completionIn Khartoum, a stretch of water will simulate the river Nile

and around it will rise the reconstructed temples of Semnaand Buhen orientated as they were in Nubia. Also aroundthe lake will be placed fragments of other Nubian temples,including reliefs from the temple of. Aksha, pillars fromchurches and various inscribed stones and rock carvings.

On the island of Meinart is a large mound long believedto conceal yet another Middle Kingdom fortress. However,Dr. W. Adams, head of the Unesco Mission to Sudanese

Nubia, has shown otherwise. His excavations have

revealed an extensive Christian settlement. The mound

is important because the stratification is exceptionallygood; at the time of my visit no less than eleven distinctChristian occupation levels had been exposed, with signsof pre-Christian structures beneath.

LEVEL five revealed one of those tantalizinglittle mysteries that will never be solved. It

seems that the entire population of the village at that timeabandoned it, but at their leisure. Moreover they intendedto return because they left behind in the houses all theirhousehold goods. But something unforeseen happenedand they never did come back. The sand drifted in cover¬

ing the floors and concealing everything left by the formerowners. And when the village was re-occupied the new¬comers left the sand-covered floors undisturbed, merelylaying new floors of mud plaster on the top. So it cameabout that a thousand years or so later, Dr. Adams receiveda rich haul of early Christian domestic objects in excellentshape.

Dr. Adams explained that the archaeological surveyfor which the Unesco Mission had responsibility, wascompleted by the end of the third season. It covered the

west bank of the Nile, including islands, from Faras at theEgyptian frontier, south to Gemai a distance of fifty miles.Three hundred and fifty sites were discovered of which270 were partly excavated by the Mission. Now theUnesco Mission is surveying south of Gemai to the DalCataract which is 100 miles inside Sudanese Nubia and the

34 extreme limit of the flood.

And so to Faras and the Polish Archaeological Mission.This centre of Christian culture in Nubia has continued to

produce spectacular evidence of its great past. In thecathedral 160 or so frescoes have been uncovered, mostof them brilliantly coloured. Of these, about eighty aresufficiently well preserved for exhibition and have been

removed from the walls of the building for despatch toKhartoum ; several of these, notably the Nativity scene andthe Youths in the Fiery Furnace, are magnificent, measuringfour by six and a half and three and a half by three metres,respectively.

I NSCRIPTIONS and graffitti recorded in thecathedral of Pachoras, to give it its ancient

name, number around 500. Near the cathedral, a second

church has been discovered together with several buildings,of which two were bishops' palaces, tombs of bishops anda nearly complete list of the bishops of Pachorus containing27 names. At Faras there are Meroitic and Pharaonic

remains including, very possibly, a fortress of the MiddleKingdom, all unexcavated. Faras, indeed, is one of therichest sites in Nubia and it is tragic that time has nowrun out; being so far north and only just above the presentlevel of the Nile, Faras will be one of the first sites tobe inundated.

In May of this year the engineers finally blocked theNile at the High Dam. From now on the river flowing throughNubia will steadily deepen. For Nubia the end is in sight.Low lying places like Buhen and Faras will be the firstto go under, but for prehistoric remains up on the Nileterraces and sites like Mirgissa and Semna on the higherlevels, there is still time for the rescue operation to continue.Particularly is this true of the unexcavated area south ofGemai to the Dal Cataract.

The conditions of work will not be easy. According toDr. T. H. Thabit, Commissioner for Antiquities in the Sudan,with the closing of the railhead and abandonment of WadiHaifa, a centre further south for the supply of food andother necessities for those expeditions that elect tocontinue working in Sudanese Nubia will be needed. Aplan to cover transport and other essential facilities is nowunder consideration in Khartoum.

Less than five years have passed since Unesco launchedthe international campaign to save Nubia's ancientmonuments and sites. Never before has an entire regionbeen archaeologically investigated on so grand a scaleand with a thoroughness that only the application of modernfield techniques can command. The results have been

fruitful to an outstanding degree.

Meanwhile the Nubian chapter of man's history is notquite closed. Several missions plan to continue digging.Others will surely follow their example.

REX KEATING of Unesco radio has visited Nubia four times on

behalf of Unesco since the start of the International Campaign. Hereturned again a few months ago to gather material for the abovearticle and for a new series of ten radio programmes, "The Sandsof Nubia", which will shortly be given world-wide distribution. He

is the author of "Nubian Twilight" published in 1962.

One of the most grace¬ful objects excavated inNubia was this coppermirror found by theOriental Institute of the

University of Chicagoin an18th-Dynasty tombat Qustul south of Abu

Simbel. Its handle is for¬

med by the figure of ayoung girl holding twodelicately curved papy¬rus leaves. The mirror

may have been theworkmanship of crafts¬men from Thebes. Be¬

low, statue of the famous

Nubian prince, HekaNefa of Miam, who was

a contemporary ofTutankhamon. The dis¬

covery of his long-sought tomb at Toshke(south of Kasr Ibrim) bya joint expedition of theUniversities of Yale and

Pennsylvania is one ofthe major contributionsto the Campaign byAmerican archaeologi¬cal expeditions to Nubia.

Pennsylvania-YaleArchaeological Expedition

Expedition of the OrientalInstitute of Chicago

DESERT HIGHWAY

BUILT FOR SHIPS

by Jean Vercoutter

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Unesco - Rex Keating

Aerial view of Mirgissa, a fortressin Sudanese Nubia whose citadel

kept watch over the Nile and therapids of the Second Cataractnearly 4,000 years ago. Whenthese rapids became impassableduring the low water season, theNile boatmen outflanked them

by hauling boats along a slipwayconstructed on the river bank.

1N 1963-64 the French Ar¬

chaeological Mission in Suda¬nese Nubia began a systematic explo¬ration of the archaeological conces¬sion it had received from the Govern¬

ment of the Sudan. Special surveys

were made in the lowest-lying areas

most immediately threatened by thewaters of the Aswan High Dam.

In these operations, aerial photo¬graphs of the area taken during 1958-59 were invaluable. Standing outclearly on one of these photographswas a kind of track running from thearea of the west bank of the Nile

northwards to the village of Matouka.I remember saying jokingly that thiswas no doubt the line of a canal which

enabled the Egyptians to outflank thedangerous rapids between Mirgissa-Dabenarti and the Rock of Abusir.

At that time I had no idea how close

I was to the truth. The astute Egyp-

SAILOR'S

FOOTPRINT

IN THE SAND

Above, the recently-dis¬covered slipway used fordragging boats around theSecond Cataract of the Nile.

It was reinforced with

wooden poles, long agodevoured by termites, butwhose emplacements canstill be seen. Right, a foot-

36 print, over 3,000 years old,made in the soft mud by oneof the last sailors to draga boat along the slipway.

Above right, the only completesarcophagus recovered from thecemetery at Mirgissa. A funerarymask with breast plate attachedcovers the face of the dead man.

The sides of the coffin are inscribed

with invocations. Above, the bodyis exhumed from 9 ft. underground.

Photos © André Vila -French Archaeological Mission

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tians, however, did not build a canal;

instead they constructed a roadway

on land for their boats, thus anticipatingby many centuries the Greekarchitects who conceived the idea of

roads along which ships were draggedacross the Isthmus of Corinth.

The Egyptian technique was remark¬ably simple. They simply spread alayer of Nile mud on the sands, after¬wards reinforcing this half-made trackwith wooden poles rather like railroadsleepers. The imprint of these poles

is still clearly visible although termiteshave long since devoured everyparticle of the wood itself.

Illustrations on Middle Kingdomtombs have shown us that the

Egyptians used these viscous subs¬tances to move colossi far heavier

than the boats that plied the Nile. Thecolossi were moved on sledges pulledby teams of men. The overseer is

shown walking ahead pouring wateron the ground, and his action revealsthe nature of the ground: when siltfrom the Nile is moistened it becomes

as slippery as Ice.An architect friend of mine carried

out an experiment which proved this.He laid down a track of silt in the

manner of the ancient Egyptians andplaced on it a huge block of stonethat had fallen from the temple ofKarnak. After he had wet the silt, his

problem was no longer how to drag thestone along the ground, but how tohold it back and keep it moving inthe right direction.

The technique of using woodenposts, as revealed at Mirgissa, isconfirmed as a practice of the MiddleKingdom period by a discovery at

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Lahun. Here the Egyptians had usedthem to reinforce a track leading froma quarry, down which they slid hugeblocks of stone for the pyramid raisedby Seostris III.

Thus we have confirmation that the

two methods used by the Egyptians atMirgissa wet mud and posts re¬inforcing the road were alreadyknown in Egypt during the MiddleKingdom.

I am quite convinced that we disco¬vered at Mirgissa a slipway thatenabled the Egyptians to travel upand down the Nile throughout the year.The passage of the rapids on theSecond Cataract is difficult, thoughpossible, when the river is in flood.But during the low-water season theoperation is quite impossible.

To maintain a link with Egypt byriver when the Nile was at Its lowest

level, the ancient garrisons in Nubiahad two alternatives: either to set

out on a long march across the desertuntil they reached the next navigablestretch of the Nile or to drag their

Kvk

boats bodily overland around thodangerous rocks that barred their way.

The slipway discovered in 1964 isremarkably well preserved. Hiddenby only a few centimetres of sand, itstill runs straight and level acrossthe land. Even the footprints of thelast sailors to pull their boats alongit are clearly visible on the dried mud,

as also are the marks made by thetimbers of the boats.

Already more than one kilometreof the slipway has been uncoveredand our next task will be to locate the

exact points where this remarkable and

original highway begins and ends.

JEAN VERCOUTTER, head of the French

Archaeological Mission in Nubia, is in chargeof excavations at Mirgissa in the Sudan.Professor Vercoutter was formerly head ofthe Antiquities Service of the Republic ofthe Sudan and has also been a member of

of the Institute of Oriental Archaeology inCairo. The author of many articles and workson ancient Egypt and Egyptian archaeology,he has directed numerous archaeologicalexcavations in Egypt and the Sudan.

37

A painting of the Kalabsha temple as it was depictedin November, 1838 by the English artist, David Roberts(1796-1864) who travelled through Egypt and Nubiapainting and sketching many ancient monuments.

MOVING A TEMP

AS A CATHEDRALby H. Stock and K. G. Siegler

I

38

MAGINE being asked to dis¬mantle a medieval cathedral,

one hundred and twenty metres long

by seventy metres wide, and toreconstruct it thirty kilometres away.

This was the problem that facedGerman archaeologists, engineers andtechnicians when they were commis¬sioned to move, not a cathedral, but an

equally massive structure the Nubiantemple of Kalabsha and to recon¬struct it thirty kilometres to the north.Kalabsha, Nubia's largest free-stand¬ing sanctuary, would otherwise havebeen engulfed in the waters of theAswan High Dam.

The temple was given its presentform when restored by one of thePtolemies and later rebuilt by the

Emperor Augustus (30 B.C.-14 A.D.).It consists of a pylon of impressivesize, an open peristyle court, a hall ofpillars and an inner chamber. Anouter wall encloses the temple build¬

ings and on the eastern side a jetty ofhewn stone leads to the Nile.

In the southwestern corner of the

outer wall, partly hewn from the solidrock, is the "birth house" of the

goddess Isis. Built into the massivegirdle wall, twelve feet thick, whichencloses the temple area is a staircasewhich leads to the roof and from there

to a small chapel dedicated to Osiris.To the north of this once sacred place

are the quarries from which the buildingmaterial was brought a smooth, fine¬grained, light-coloured stone still in anexcellent state of preservation except

where damaged by man.

Most of the pictorial decoration inthis noble, well-proportioned structure

is on the inner walls of the sanctuary,on the entrance facade and the rear

wall and also on the outer shrines

of the hypostyle hall. Kalabsha'sfinest artistic treasure is a represent¬

ation of Augustus Caesar in the ritualdress of the Egyptian Pharaohs, sacri¬ficing to Isis, Osiris, Horus and theNubian god Mandulis, on the westernouter wall of the sanctuary.

From its original site at a height of110 metres above sea level the Kalab¬

sha temple has now been moved to anew location also on the west bank of

the Nile and thirty kilometres to thenorth. The work of dismantlingcreated some formidable problems.

One thousand six hundred huge blocksof sandstone, some of them weighing

up to twenty tons, had to be lifted oneby one and carefully placed on boatsmoored near the temple.

After being off-loaded near the newsite the blocks were moved on heavy

lorries to a storage area and markedwith identification numbers and sym

bols. Before the entire operation

began a detailed inventory was madeof the temple area by the Documen¬tation Centre on Ancient Egypt, inCairo, and by the German archaeo¬

logists and technicians.Operations lasted from September

1961 until the late autumn of 1963. As

many as 450 workers were employedon the site, and in the summer of 1962the work went on in two shifts for

twenty hours a day, in shade tempera¬tures averaging from forty-five tofifty-two degrees centigrade.

There were also other problems tobe overcome. In the autumn of 1961

GIANT JIG SAW PUZZLE. Piles of stones, some weighing up to 20 tons,stretch almost as far as the eye can see. They are from the temple of Kalabshain storage after it was dismantled in 1962. Marked with identification num¬bers they have been placed near the site where Kalabsha has risen again.

© K. G. Siegler

LE AS BIG

work was held up for several months

by the flooding of the Nile. And beforethe stones could be landed near the

temple's new site a special harbourhad to be built as well as a road to

give access to the high ground onwhich the stones were stored. Twelve

thousand cubic metres of rock were

removed with explosives to preparethe new building site.

It is difficult to imagine the effect ofsuch conditions on the small team of

technicians and architects and on the

local workers who laboured under the

burning sun at Kalabsha. In spite ofthe stifling heat, which barely abateseven at night, few dared ignore thedangers of waterborne diseases suchas bilharziasis to risk a swim in the

Nile.

Not one of these men will forgetthe lonely, rugged landscape, ochre-coloured and denuded of vegetation,or the mighty river, the life-blood ofEgypt, that flows through it. Nor willthey forget the torrid nights and thestarry brilliance of the Nubian sky.

The basic aim of the operation was

to save the Kalabsha temple, thoughit was also hoped to discover newfacts about the history of the sanctuary

and the surrounding area, and in anycase to learn more about the ancient

building techniques. These hopes havebeen fully realized, since this is thefirst time in history that an ancient

building of such size has been dis¬mantled stone by stone and re-erectedon an entirely new site.

The operation revealed all theproblems and technical difficulties en¬

countered by the architects, buildersand stone masons of 2,000 years ago.It was possible to see how they trans¬ported, measured and worked the stone

and where they made mistakes andtried to correct them. Even the archi¬

tectural planning that went into thetemple was revealed in detail.

The poor state of preservation ofcertain parts of the great edificecreated some new problems when

iO Rex Ksating

AN OASIS OF TEMPLES. The site on which the reconstructed temple ofKalabsha now stands will be transformed into an island by the rising watersof the Aswan High Dam. As other temples are rebuilt here it will becomean island oasis for some of Nubia's precious monuments. Above, the colonna¬ded forecourt of Kalabsha, a temple dedicated to Madulis, the Nubian sungod. Kalabsha is a superb example of Egyptian art of the Roman period.

reconstruction began. In 1907 theItalian architect, Barsanti, had carried

out admirable and painstaking workto protect the temple from furtherdeterioration, but serious damage hadalready occurred. Many pillars andcapitals, beams and ceilings hadcollapsed. Holes had been torn in thereliefs by those in search of plunder.These wounds were now healed by

restoration work and the closing up ofthe ugly holes that pierced the walls.

The greatest problem of all wasposed by the ceilings of the sanctuaryand the hypostyle halls which had al¬most completely collapsed. Most ofthese ceilings were made of immenseblocks of stone, some seven metres

long, whose transport and storagemust have been tremendous problems

for the original builders.

It was finally decided to restore the

ceilings in the sanctuary, and thiswas done with prefabricated rein¬forced concrete beams covered with a

light coating of plaster. This plasterfinish was encircled with narrow grovesto identify it as a modem addition tothe original structure.

Thus, in the half light of the innerrooms, the precious reliefs are effec

tively protected from further damageby the elements. Visitors to the tem¬

ple will see them as they appeared inthe past, magical and mysterious, andilluminated solely by the sparse raysof light that penetrate the tiny antiquewindow slits and the few openings inthe ceilings copied from the originalbuilding.

Soon the great old Kalabsha temple,newly rebuilt and consolidated, will be

handed over to the people of the Uni¬ted Arab Republic by the governmentof the Federal Republic of Germany infulfilment of its pledge to Unesco asymbol of international co-operationin the preservation of a priceless cultu¬ral heritage.

HANNS STOCKand KARLGEORG

SIEGLER carried out studies on the pro¬blems of dismantling, removing and recon¬structing the temple of Kalabsha at the requestof the Institute ofArchaeology of the FederalRepublic of Germany. Prof. Stock is anarchaeologist; Dr. Siegler is an architectwho specializes in antiquities. They are the

authors of "Kalabsha The Great Nubian 30Temple and the Story of Its Rescue."recently published in German by F. A.Brockhaus. Wiesbaden. Fed Rep. of Germany.

The Aswan High Dam

KEY TO A NATION'S FUTURE

by Taher Abu WafaUnder-Secretary of StateMinistry of the Aswan High Dam

N:I EARLY forty million people live in the Nile basin,twenty-seven million of them within the frontiers

of Egypt. They are the people whose lives are most closelybound up with the waters of the Nile. Over ninety-nineper cent of these twenty-seven million people have theirhomes along the banks of the river in an area covering35,000 square kilometres. Thus, with an average of 770people per square kilometre, this tract of the Nile Valleyhas the highest population density of any country in theworld.

At the end of the 18th century the population of Egyptnumbered between two and a half and three million and

by the middle of the 19th century it had risen to four andthree quarter million. Since then it has grown rapidly andis now increasing at an alarmingly high rate. In the fiftyyears ending in 1952 Egypt's population actually doubled,although its national revenue only increased by seventeenper cent. The solution to this crucial problem was to createa balanced growth between population and production.

The construction of the High Aswan Dam, the "Sadd-el-Aali" was undertaken as a broad approach to the problemof supplying this fast-multiplying population with sufficientfood and fibres for textile production. It was also conceivedas a bold, direct approach to control of the Nile's waterresources for agricultural expansion, the production ofcheap hydroelectric power, protection against flooding andthe improvement of irrigation and draining conditions aswell as for the development of fish resources andrecreational facilities.

Five thousand years ago Egypt claims to have had theworld's oldest dam, one hundred and ten metres long bytwelve metres high, which was built near Cairo to storewater for drinking and irrigation. And basin Irrigation,introduced on the Nile about 3300 B.C., still plays a majorrole In Egyptian farming.

Under this ancient irrigation system dikes are built todivide the land into basins of from 1,000 to 40,000 acres andflood waters are then let into the compartments to a depthof from one to two metres. Forty to sixty days later whenthe river has fallen, these lands are drained and crops aregrown with the help of the moisture that remains in thesoil. Some 700,000 acres of Egyptian land are still wateredby this proved system of irrigation, although only one cropcan be produced annually.

During the past century much as been done to conservethe waters of the Nile for irrigation.. But even today someof each annual flood flows to waste into the Mediterranean.

This may not amount to much in the years of low floods,but in peak flood years it can total as much as 100,000 millioncubic metres of water.

The original Aswan Dam was built in 1902 to store someof the excess flood water so as to supplement the dischargeof the Nile when its level dropped. The wall of this damwas raised in 1912 and again in 1933, thereby doublingthe storage capacity. A new dam was also built at Gebel

40 Awlia, near Khartoum, in 1937.

With the construction of the new High Dam, sevenkilometres upstream from the existing dam, it will now be

possible to control the whole volume of the river and tostore all the surplus water. Rising one hundred and elevenmetres above the river bed, the dam will be far wider thanthe Nile, which at this point is five hundred and fiftymetres from bank to bank. The crest of the High Dam willextend for 3,600 metres and its base will be nine hundred

and eighty metres wide.

The water impounded behind the dam wall will createthe world's second largest man-made lake. Extending threehundred and fifty kilometres in the Sudan, it will have anaverage width of ten kilometres and a total capacity ofone hundred and fifty-six thousand million cubic metres.

The vast reserve of water will be put to many uses. Itwill become possible:

To supply enough irrigation water to develop 1.9 millionacres, thus Increasing the present area of crop-growingland by about twenty-five per cent;

To meet the full irrigation needs of existing and newdevelopment areas, even in years when the river levelis at its lowest, and thereby increase crop yields;

To increase rice-growing areas to one million acres peryear. In the past twenty years the size of these areas hasvaried from 373,000 acres (1953) to 875,000 acres (1947);

To create better drainage conditions thanks to a lowerand more stable water table and a more even distribution of

water In the river and the canals throughout the year;

To put an end to fluctuations in the flow and level ofwater in the river and canals which today interfere withnavigation.

Once water levels become more or less stabilized as a

result of the High Dam, the tonnage carried by inlandwaterways is expected to increase by between twentyand thirty per cent.

INCE early times the people of Egypt have been'subjected to the dangers of the Nile in flood.

They have lived under the protection of embankments builtalong the river from Aswan to Cairo (about 900 kilometres)and along the two branches in the delta (a further 200 kilo¬metres to the sea). But these embankments were the onlymeans of flood control and when they were burstopen by the waters the result was a major disaster withheavy loss of life and widespread damage to crops andproperty.

Fortunately no serious breach has been made in theNile's banks in the past seventy years and except for thefloods of 1946 and 1954 there has been no really dangerousinundation during the last half century. Today a seriousflood would create unprecedented havoc because of thegreatly increased area of cultivation, the expansion of indus¬try and the tremendous rise in population.

To be completely effective any flood protection schemeon the Nile must keep the volume of water passing downthe branches of the river to the sea below the safe margin

Paul Almasy. Paris The construction ot the Aswan High Dam makes possible a tremendous expansion ofindustry and agriculture throughout an entire region. Its waters will irrigate vast tractsof land and its electricity will feed new industries and allow the expansion of existingones such as the Kima fertilizer factory, near Aswan, (above) which has an annualproduction of 565,000 tons. More electric power is badly needed: the Kima factoryalone today consumes 78 % of the electricity produced by the existing Aswan dam.

of six hundred and seventy million cubic metres a day. TheHigh Dam has been designed to give this protection.

The construction of the dam is also a major step towardsthe full utilization of the vast potential energy in the watersof the Nile. To produce electricity for industrial develop¬ment, twelve generating turbine units with a total capacityof two million one hundred thousand kilowatts are beingInstalled. When completed in 1971 the power station willhave a potential energy of about nine thousand millionkilowatt-hours. By 1972, when more water accumulates inthe new reservoir, power production should reach a maxi¬mum capacity of ten thousand million kilowatt-hours peryear.

Even if, as presently estimated, the population increasesto thirty-six million by 1972, the High Dam should makepossible an increase of electric power consumption to aboutfour hundred kilowatt-hours per head of population abouttwo and a half times the present level. This will permitthe creation of new industries and the expansion of existingones. It will also stimulate the development of public

utilities and will greatly facilitate irrigation and drainagethrough pumping. It may also make possible the electrifi¬cation of some of the national railroads.

The total cost of construction in the High Dam project,including the power station, transmission lines from Aswanto Cairo, irrigation projects, reclamation of lands, roads andother public utilities in newly-reclaimed areas, is estimatedat £E415 million (one £E equals $2.78).

To finance the project, loan agreements were made withthe U.S.S.R. which is making available a total of 113,200,000Egyptian pounds. This sum will cover costs connectedwith Soviet technical assistance and the supply of the mainconstruction equipment as well as other permanent equip¬ment for the spillway structure, power station and electrictransmission lines.

It has been calculated that the project will bring a totalincrease in national income of £E 235 million. The new

dam is not the highest or the largest ever built, but in terms 41of the benefits that it will bring it can rightly be claimed asone of the world's great pioneer projects.

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STAMPS FOR NUBIA

Over 40 countries have issued stampsin the philatelic campaign whichsince 1961 has supported Unesco'sefforts to save the monuments of

Nubia. This campaign reached itsmost active phase this year whenmany countries marked the fourthanniversary of Unesco's NubianAppeal with issues of special stamps.Some countries are pledged to contri¬bute a percentage of stamp sales tothe Nubian Appeal Fund and othershave turned over blocks of stampsto Unesco's Philatelic Service to be

sold for the campaign. Here we pre¬sent some of the stamps issued onevery continent to help safeguard themonuments of Nubia. For informa¬

tion write to The Unesco Philatelic

Service, Place de Fontenoy, Paris-7e.

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SAUVEGARDE DESMONUMENTS DENUBIE

Letters to the Editor

44

AID IN THE CLASSROOM

Sir,

Your magazine obviously has aspecial usefulness in the classroom.As a teacher in the city of Rabat-SaléI have urged all my colleagues tosubscribe to it and I have set them

the example by subscribing to boththe French and Arabic editions. I

should like to make three suggestions:(1) Include with each issue a colourphotograph of a building, a city or ins¬titution or else the map of a country;(2) Publish in each issue a report orbroad survey of one of the developingcountries; (3) Give us more articlesby Arab, African and Asian writers andpublish more translations of poems.

A. Kombi

Salé, Morocco

WORLD'S NEED OF HUMUS

Sir,

The letter drawing attention to theimmense reserves of humus in the

soils of tropical lands (April 1964)spotlights the fact that the world'sneed of humus will become acute in

the years ahead when soil Impov¬erishment will make its impact onthe quality and size of harvests. Thefertility of crop-growing land cannotbe maintained by chemical fertilizersalone. Only the combined effects ofchemical and organic fertilizers canincrease soil fertility and providesufficient food for a growing worldpopulation.

Too little attention has been paidto this question in the past. It isone of our most urgent problems.One day man's whole future maydepend on it even in the developedcountries. The solutions have alreadybeen found and the real problem ishow to put them into practice. Untilnow the problem has only been attack¬ed on a municipal scale with theaim of getting rid of city wastesrather than of producing new ferti¬lizers. Undertaken on a national

scale or by large international enter¬prises it could result In (1) the dis¬appearance of city and industrialwastes now polluting the air and theoutskirts of urban areas; (2) thecleansing of polluted waters in riversand streams and the recovery of use¬ful sediments; (3) the production ofconcentrated, organo-chemical fertili¬zers to increase soil fertility; (4) posi¬tive action In the struggle to defeathunger.

Finally, as your correspondentsuggested, wide use could be madeof the immense reserves of organicmatter in tropical countries, after pro¬cessing methods had been tried outin industrially developed countries.For the humus would still need treat¬

ment. Properly processed, a fewdozen tons would have the same

effect on sterile soil as the hundreds

of tons per hectare that would be

needed if the humus was used in its

original state.Ft. Jammes

Paris, France

ORIGIN OF CRETAN SCRIPTS

Sir,

In your Issue on The Art of Writing(March 1964) you state in the articleon Texts from Cretan Monuments

(page 28) that I have suggested theCretan Linear A script has Semiticaffinities. I do not support the Semi¬tic theory. I have proved that theCretan Hieroglyphic (Phaistos Diskand Seals), the Linear A and theEteocretan Scripts are all in theHittite language. I have lately deci¬phered the Cypro-Minoan tablet dis¬covered by Dikaios at Enkomë in 1953and find that It is also in the Hittite

language.

Prof. S. Davis

University of WitwatersrandJohannesburg, Rep. of South Africa

ONLY THIRTY-TWO PAGES

Sir,

To me the day the current issue ofThe Unesco Courier arrives is a

holiday. I regard The Courier as theencyclopaedic chronicle of the cultu¬ral and scientific life of our planet.It should have no political stringsattached. But the window open onthe world is small; it should longsince have been enlarged and theglass polished up.

It seems to me that name "Courier"

is not justified by the speed withwhich It reacts to events. Many ar¬ticles are late in appearing; theWinter Olympic Games were not evenmentioned, although the January 1964issue dealt mainly with sports. Surelythe Tokyo Olympics are not going tobe by-passed?

I cannot imagine why the storyabout the Indian girl who wanted togo to school was published in theApril 1964 issue. It is of no interest,either from the artistic or any otherangle.

It would be interesting to knowsomething about the development ofrocket techniques, the exploration ofspace, and of experiments in this fieldin the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. You

seem to be making an effort to sayas little as possible about these sub¬jects. The Courier should be thechronicle of the cultural and scientific

life of our planet and should reactimmediately.

In my opinion every issue shouldcontain a short item with a portraitand some photos commemorating theanniversary of a poet, artist or scien¬tist who has made an Important con¬tribution to the development of worldscience and culture.

I do not agree that signed articles

(which constitute the majority) needexpress the opinion only of theauthor, which may or may not coin¬cide with that of Unesco and the

editors. An article written to order

should, in the main, express theopinion of the editors of our inter¬national journal. If this is not so youmay descend to the publication ofcheap novelettes and similar rubbish.

I hope you will pardon the sharpnessof my criticism, but I believe it to benecessary and want it to be helpful.

Titas Alfonsovich Milashius

Minsk, U.S.S.R.

Ed. Note: Please, please, please, wehave only 32 pages a month and weare not a news magazine.

THE MEANING OF FLAGS

Sir,

I recently decorated a hall for aninternational gathering with panelsrepresenting the national flags ofcountries participating in the event.I had great difficulty in obtainingdetails of the arms and emblems

decorating the flags in question, andfinally got this information directlyfrom the various embassies. In thi9

way, for example, I discovered thesymbolic significance of the coloursin the flag of the Republic of Indiaand of the wheel at its centre.

The flag of India adopted by thecountry's Constituant Assembly Isformed of three horizontal bands co¬

loured saffron, white and green. Inthe centre is the Wheel of Asoka.

The central band is the white of the

rays of the sun ; it represents light,purity and truth which is synonymouswith "Ahimsa" (non-violence). Thecolour saffron stands for courage andsacrifice. Green stands for faith,

chivalry and dependence on the soil.

The Wheel of Asoka (the DharmaChakra) Is the symbol of the universallaw, of continual change and progress.The blue of the wheel Is that of the

sky and the endless oceans.

I should like to suggest that infuture issues of The Unesco Courier

you publish on loose-leaf pages similarfacts concerning all the national flagsof Unesco's member states. Once as¬

sembled these pages would composean interesting and instructive collec¬tion of knowledge which would stimu¬late new interest among readers inall countries.

André Ferner

Berne, Switzerland

Ed. Note: Readers may be interestedin the titles of two books that tell the

stories of national flags: "Flag Book ofthe United Nations", published by theU.N. Office of Public information. New

York. 1963 ($1.00): "Flags of theWorld" by Gresham H. Can. Publishedby F. Warne, London and New York,1953.

From the Unesco New

VITAL FACTS & FIGURES: An impressivearray of international facts and figures,

ranging from statistics on population andeducation to cultural and mass communi¬

cation data, is presented in the first editionof Unesco's Statistical Yearbook, which

has just been published. In this bilingual(English-French) volume, Unesco hasassembled information obtained through itsown inquiries and surveys supplementedby data from national and internationalreports and publications. Statistical tablescovering a period of several years makepossible a comparative evaluation of trendsand developments in such fields as filmproduction, population growth, educationalexpansion and book publication. (472 pages;price: $4.00; 20/-; 14 F Frs.)

INTERNATIONAL CELL RESEARCH: Basic

I research on the cell a field concernedwith processes ranging from cancer to thevery origins of life was recently givenbroader international scope. Scientists from14 countries and nine research organiza¬tions who attended the first meeting of theCouncil of the Unesco-sponsored Inter¬national Cell Research Organization, heldin Brussels, approved plans for the expan¬sion of ICRO laboratory networks andan increase in fellowships and internationaltraining courses.

NEW FACE FOR FARMING: A new sys¬tem of land terracing is spreading

throughout the Republic of Korea whichwill vastly increase food production andachieve maximum soil and water conser¬

vation. This improved technique was firstIntroduced by a U.N. Special Fund projectan agricultural survey and demonstrationprogramme in the Korean uplandscarried out by FAO with the co-operationof the American-Korean Foundation.

SPECIAL ISSUE ON NUBIA'S

TREASURES STILL AVAILABLE

A special 52-page colour issue ofthe Unesco Courier was publishedin February 1960, when the worldappeal to save the Nubian treasureswas launched. A valuable additional

source of information on Nubia and

its monuments, this richly-illustratedissue is still available in limited

quantities (price 2/6d; 60 cents) fromUnesco's National Distributors (seepage 46).

BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF RACE: Biolo¬

gists, geneticists and anthropologistsfrom 17 countries, assembled under Unesco

auspices in Moscow to study the biologicalaspects of race, have drawn up a 13-pointstatement on their conclusions which has

now been published by Unesco. The pur¬pose of the meeting was to revise, in thelight of recent progress In biology andhuman genetics, a declaration on the natureof race and race differences drafted in

1951 at Unesco's request by specialists inphysical anthropology. The conclusions ofthe Moscow meeting will be consideredby a further meeting which Unesco willconvene in 1966 to draw up a statementcovering all aspects of the race question.

OUR THIRSTY WORLD: Western Europetoday uses 110,000 gallons of water

per person and per year for its industrial,agricultural and domestic needs. In theUnited States, where the figure for thesesame needs is 220,000 gallons, water usehas increased to the point where scarcity

is hindering development in some areas.

UNICEF

greeting cardsLast year the United Nations Chil¬dren's Fund (UNICEF) raised morethan $2 million through the sale ofover 34 million greeting cards.UNICEF is now using this money tohelp children in over 100 countries togain better health, nutrition and edu¬cation. A single box of UNICEFcards now on sale in 100 countries

can provide vaccine to protect 50children from tuberculosis. We re¬

produce here one of the 24 cards for1964, designed and donated by artistsfrom many countries"Homeward", a

woodcut by Sudjana Kerton of Indone¬sia. UNICEF greeting cards come inboxes of ten priced at 7/6 (U.K.); $1.25(U.S.) and 6 F (France). For furtherinformation write: UNICEF GCF, 14-15Stratford Place, London, W.I, U.K.;National UNICEF Committee, 280Bloor St. West, Toronto 5, Ont., Can-

. ada (attn. Mrs. G. Richards); U.S.Committee for UNICEF, P.O. Box 22,Church Street Station, New York 8,N.Y. (attn. Miss Olga Gechas); UNI¬CEF, Fonds des Cartes de Vrux, 24,rue Borghèse, Neuilly-s-Selne, France.

CONTRIBUTIONS

TO THE NUBIAN CAMPAIGN

Excavations ; scientific work ; safe¬guarding monuments other than AbuSimbel. (See also page 6.)

1. Contributions to the Unesco

Trust Fund

UNITED STATES. $2,380,000: Templeof Belt el Wall, rock-hewn tomb ofPennut at Aniba and temple of Wadies Sebua.

$120,000: Temple of Buhen.$6,000,000: Funds reserved forPhllae.

BELGIUM. $16,560: Temple of SemnaWest.

2. Direct participation

ARGENTINA. $32,163 (grants fromscientific Institutions). Excavations.

AUSTRIA. $35,778 (public and privategrants). Excavations and scientificworks.

BELGIUM. $22,500 (public grants andprivate donations). Scientific works.

CANADA. $57,400 plus payment ofstaff costs, and receipts from exhi¬bition of Egyptian art treasures. Ex¬cavations.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA. $284,250 (publicgrants). Excavations.

DENMARK. $92,578. Excavations.

FINLAND. $67,812 (public and privategrants). Excavations.

FRANCE. $237,350. Amada.$32,154. Scientific works.$18,051. Supplies of material andservices.

Aid in dismantling Aksha temple.

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY.

$1,950,000. Kalabsha.

GHANA. $30,268 (public grants). Ex¬cavations.

INDIA. $32,760 (public grants). Exca¬vations.

ITALY. $32,000. Excavations.

JAPAN. $273,100 (private donationreceipts from an exhibition on the

art of ancient Egypt).

NETHERLANDS. $78,620. Semna East.Payment of technical study for safe¬guarding of Phllae.

NORWAY. $57,600 (public and privategrants plus payment of staff costsand provision of transport). Exca¬vations.

POLAND. Important contributions toscientific work and excavations.

SPAIN. $226,500 (public grants). Ex¬cavations.

SWEDEN. $30,238 (receipts fromexhibition of Egyptian art).$100,800. Excavations.

SWITZERLAND. $23,150 (publicgrants). Scientific works.

UNITED KINGDOM. $126,000 (privatedonations). Excavations and safe¬guard of monuments.

UNITED STATES. $1,988,000 (publicand private grants). Excavations.

YUGOSLAVIA. $35,400 (private dona¬tions). Scientific works.

Flashes..

Professor Norair M. Sissakian. Soviet

biochemist and a member of the U.S.S.R.

Academy of Sciences, was elected presidentof the 1 3th session of the Unesco General

Conference which opened in Paris onOctober 20. Prof. Sissakian has been a

member of the Unesco Executive Board

since 1 959.

Rumania and Poland have become the 4522nd and 23rd countries to ratify theConvention against Discrimination in Educ¬ation, sponsored by Unesco.

UNESCO COURIER INDEX 1964

JanuaryFAIR PLAY& THE AMATEUR IN SPORT. Sport is education

What makes the athlete run ? Etchcraft on celluloid Countdown

for space flight New tools to map our mineral wealth.

FebruaryWORLD COMMUNICATIONS. A special Unesco report on massmedia developments New sights and sounds in the classroomThe fantastic laser 3,000 years of glass-making Amazing pro¬perties of modern glass Frescoes from ancient Cyprus.

March

THE ART OF WRITING. Hittite and Maya glyphs Champolliondeciphers Egypt's hieroglyphs The birth of cuneiform Emergenceof the alphabet In the path of sacred books A family of Asianscripts How Europe began to write 11 centuries of the Cyrillicalphabet Scripts shrouded in mystery Ideograms from ancientChina.

AprilWORLD HEALTH DAY. Tuberculosis: still three million deaths a

year The battle of Tunisia A momentous look into the microscopeBirth of a new vaccine Resurrection of the Eskimoes Super-

bacilli: new challenge to medicine Maria Montessori: vision ofmankind transformed The silent music of the earth Pantheon of

Greek gods The day the river spoke Stories in stamps.

MayGALILEO & SHAKESPEARE ANNIVERSARIES. World side

story: a special inquiry on teen-agers today Shakespeare, yearfour hundred The London that was Shakespeare's Worldrendez-vous in Stratford Galileo Galilei: A new vision of the

universe The majesty of the cosmos Truth behind the veil offacts.

June

TEN YEARS TO BUILD A WORLD. World side story: a case ofmissing identity Taras Shevchenko: rebel with a cause Delightsof the engraver's art The shore of exile Encounter on a summernight Man through his art: music The flags are not enough.

July-AugustWATER AND LIFE. The international hydrological decade

Water in the World Underground water: a wasted treasureSculpture with water The thirstless camel Can we stop thecancer of river pollution ? Where we stand with water desaltingRivers of international concord The new Nile Drops in thehydrologist's bucket May the rains come Peoples of the deltasThe high wall of the low countries Floods I floods 1 1 floods 1 1 1Hydraulic civilizations.

September

WOMEN IN THE NEW ASIA. The surge to the towns Ceylon :silent victory Burma: family in transition Thailand: woman'splace in the home Three villages under a microscope Viet Nam :20 years of change and turmoil World side story : is there a solutionfor delinquency?

October

ILLITERACY: CHALLENGE OF OUR CENTURY. Thestruggleagainst illiteracy Investment in people The highest schoolin the world Art of Ethiopia A safari armed with microscopesGreat men, great events.

November

DISARMAMENT. Arms cost the world $120,000 million a yearNuclear weapons and world sanity Fall-out hazards: now andyesterday The sword and the ploughshares Nine tapestries onman in the atomic age The Pugwash Movement Unesco anddisarmament The economic impact of disarmament Disarmamentand the developing nations The last flower Peaceful uses formilitary energy.

December

VICTORY IN NUBIA. Nubia's last secrets A temple movedon rails How Abu Simbel will be saved Faras: gallery of169 frescoes The art of removing a fresco Return to the Landof Kush The scrolls of Kasr Ibrim Desert highway for ships ofthe Nile Moving a temple as big as a cathedral Key to anation's future: the Aswan High Dam Stamps for Nubia.

Where to obtain Unesco publicationsOrder from any bookseller, or write direct to

the National Distributor in your country. (See listbelow ; names of distributors in countries notlisted will be supplied on request.) Payment ismade in the national currency ; the rates quotedare for an annual subscription to THE UNESCOCOURIER in any one language.

AFGHANISTAN. Panuzaï, Prest Department. RoyalAghan Ministry of Education, Kabul. AUSTRALIA.Tradco Agencies, 109 Swanston Street, G. P. O.Box 2324 V, Melbourne C. I.Nations Association of Australia,

8th Floor. McEwan House, 343Melbourne C. I. (Victoria). (

(Victoria); UnitedVictorian Division,Little Collins St.,

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Abu Simbel, almost unknown

to the world a few years ago,has been visited by thousandsof people since the Nubianmonuments' campaign began.Here, Nubian women examine

a frieze depicting prisonersof three thousand years agowhose capture by Rameses IIwas recorded in stone at the

portals of his Great Temple.

Rex Keating

.AYER CAKE

OF FRESCOES

AT FARAS "¿f(see caption p