Qasr Ibrim

Qasr Ibrim Egypt

Qasr Ibrim is located 235 kilometers south of Aswan and 60 kilometers north of Abu Simbel; the central massif of the three existing south of the village of Ibrim is the most important. The fort or castle of Qasr Ibrim was built on pharaonic foundations, as suggested by all the reused monuments dating back to the New Empire. Among the oldest are the structure of a temple at Taharqa and a stele of Amenhotep I.

It was originally a city perched on the Nile, but the flooding of the Aswan Dam has turned it into an island, leaving the part of the temple that was the tallest to be saved. Qasr Ibrim is the only archaeological site in Lower Nubia that has survived the floods of the Nile and is an important site for archaeological research.

Part of the structure of the fortress was built during the reign of Augustus, a period from which Qasr Ibrim continued to be occupied sometime later. During the 18th and 19th dynasties, the shrines and chapels carved into the rock were dedicated to the reigning pharaoh and various gods and were the work of the viceroys of Kush.

While the Aswan Dam was being built, the reliefs were removed and moved to the vicinity of El-Sebuah. The great stone stele of Sethy I and the reigning viceroy of Kush at that time, called Amenemope, was found south of the fortress and moved to the vicinity of the temple of Kalabsha in Aswan.

You can still see on Lake Nasser what remains of the citadel of Qasr Ibrim; excavations have revealed that it was built between 920 and 800 BC, after the retreat of the Egyptians and the need of the Nubians to build a fortress to protect themselves; it was one of the most important moments of Qasr Ibrim.

The excavations have also revealed the temple of Taharqa, belonging to the 25th dynasty, and other remains of different fortifications; the Roman walls surround the citadel, and at its northern end are the remains of the fortress from the same period.