Musawwarat es-Sufra

Al- Musawwarat as- Sufra (Arabic المصورات الصفراء al - Musawwarat as- Sufra ʾ, DMG al - Musawwarat aṣ - Sufra ʾ, also it Musawwarat Sufra; meroitisch Aborepi; ancient Egyptian Jbrp, jpbr - ˁ NH) is the modern name of a large temple complex in the present-day Sudan.

Location

The town is located approximately 190 kilometers northeast of Khartoum, around 20 kilometers north of Naqa and approximately 29 kilometers south-east of the Nile.

Importance

There are few remains of settlements and only a few post- Meroitic graves. This suggests that the place had a purely religious function and perhaps served as a pilgrimage center. This hypothesis is supported by the large number of visitors inscriptions that were found here, including previously, only Latin inscription from Nubia.

Already from 1960 to 1968 led the Humboldt -Universität zu Berlin excavations under the direction of Fritz Hintze through. In the years 1969-1970 the lion temple was reconstructed under the direction of Fritz Hintze and Karl -Heinz pepper. The archaeological work began in 1995 under the direction of Steffen Little again. Since 2005 Claudia Näser leads the research project.

Together with Meroe and Naqa Musawwarat It was incorporated as Sufra Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe, 2011 in the list of UNESCO World Heritage.

Big Rig

The so-called Big Rig is a maze of courtyards, the center of which is a temple surrounded by columns. In addition, there are other small temples. 300 The temple was adorned by two colossal figures. Most walls were undecorated. There were many sculptures of animals, such as elephants. The scheme of the system is so far without parallel in Nubia and Egypt.

The name of King Arnekhamani appear on the Lion Temple, which was dedicated to the Apedemak and was located about 600 meters from the Great Enclosure.

From the large Hafir with 200 meters in diameter are still parts of the mound yet.