First impressions as we fly in our Petroleum Airlines Embraer en route to Abu Simbel airport from Aswan. The Nile was impounded first in 1902 by the British, whose history in the Middle East have volumes to lead one to dismay. Displacements to locals at that time were one thing but with the development of the High Dam in 1961, they became totally another thing. Nubia was gone, drowned beneath the Lakes of Lake Nasser. Egypt finally gained its revenge for the 25th Dynasty.

NUBIA

Nubia – the word comes from nub – old Egyptian for gold – stood as a transition land for centuries lying along the Nile between the First Cataract immediately south of Aswan and the confluence of the Blue and White branches of the Nile near Khartoum. Centered around what is known as the Kerma Culture, Nubian kings ruled from around 2500 BC until about 1500 BC. The Nubians were one of several groups occasionally making life harder for Egyptians especially in the south. Raiders went both ways – Egyptian and Nubian – before Thutmose I finally conquered the Nubian kingdom. New Kingdom pharaohs then ruled over the combined countries for four hundred years.

25th dynasty

But Nubia rose again with the Kingdom of Kush returned the favor as Nubian armies invaded to gain control over Egypt in the Eight Century BC led by Piye who became the first Pharaoh of the 25th Dynasty with help from the rulers of Thebes after an era of disunity following the end of the New Kingdom – Nubians were not the first foreigners to rule the Double Kingdom for that came during the Twenty-third Dynasty with Libyan rule. Piye went on from his reunification of Egypt – under Nubian leadership – to unsuccessfully attack the Assyrians in 720 BC.

Kush on top

Nubian rule lasted from 754 BC until 656 BC with several Nubian pharaohs taking center stage on the Nile – Shebitku, Shabaka, Taharqa and finally, Tantamani. Taharqa may be one of the best known of these rulers for his restoration and construction of works throughout the Nile Valley. At the Temple of Karnak, the first court kiosk and the entrance colonnades date from Taharqa’s time. He also built the largest pyramid in Nubia at Nuri between the Third and Fourth Cataracts.

Reconquering Phoenicia and Palestine, his army held off an Assyrian army in the helping his allies in Judah in 701 BC. But the Assyrians soon returned taking the fight into Egypt, itself. In 674 BC, Taharqa defeated this first invasion, but three years later, it was Taharqa who lost. The Assyrians occupied northern Egypt imposing tribute and the withdrew. Taharqa returned to regain control over Egypt in 669 BC which brought the Assyrians back. They advanced as far as Thebes with Taharqa retreating south to Nubia where he died in 664 BC.

Assyria and the Ptolemies

The Assyrians did not stay and Taharqa’s successor, Tantamani, regained control over Egypt as far north as Memphis. Continuing north into Lower Egypt and the Delta brought another Assyrian army south upon him. Tantamani retreated all the way back into Nubia with the Assyrians placing Psamtik I upon the throne of Lower Egypt – a vassal of Assyria. Psamtik sailed south on the river to take control over Thebes and Upper Egypt beginning the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.

The Nubian kings continued to claim the Egyptian throne, but their time on the top had passed. Persians eventually rolled into Egypt making their border to the south near the Second Cataract. During the succeeding years of Ptolemaic rule, Nubia was important as a supply route for the Ptolemies to gain war elephants in their interminable wars with the Seleucids – and their larger Indian elephants. The northern part of Nubia – Dodekaschoinos – came under Ptolemy rule about 275 BC. Temples built during Ptolemaic rule included the Philae Temple dedicated to the goddess Isis.

Rome and Christianity

Rome came next. They drew the border at Aswan with the Nubian kingdom of Kush set up as a client kingdom, like the situation earlier under the Ptolemies. Nubia underwent a period of time during the next three hundred years of splinter groups trying to establish themselves in control of Nubia. Three Christian kingdoms eventually arose with Nobatia – about 350 AD – controlling the area between the First and Second Cataracts.

Christianity had come south by the end of the fourth century and the king and nobles of Nobatia converted about 545 AD. The middle of the three Christian Nubian kingdoms, Makuria, became dominant in the seventh century. They were strong enough to halt Islamic expansion after the Arab conquest of Egypt. Several failed invasions later, the Arabs and Nubians signed a treaty – Baqt – which brought a peace lasting for six hundred years. Finally, in 1272, Egypt – under Mamluk rule by then – invaded and incorporated half of Nubia.

Islam and Today

Interactions between the Arabs and the Nubians gradually transformed Nubia from Christianity to Islam. Political collapse of Nubian power in the fourteenth century, led to smaller kingdoms – the north still under Egyptian rule. Eventually, in the nineteenth century, the entire area slipped into Egyptian rule becoming part of the Anglo-Egyptian condominium. Sudan seceded from Egypt in 1956 with Nubia divided between the two countries.

Nubians make up Egypt’s largest marginalized minority today. Their marginalization best demonstrated by the history of the two dams built just south of Aswan across the Nile which resulted in displacement of thousands of Nubians from their ancestral homes.

LOW DAM

In 1882, following the British occupation of Egypt, the first dam project on the Nile was hatched in 1898 with hopes of providing storage of annual floodwaters to augment the dry season. These waters would augur increased irrigation to large agricultural projects and serve an ever-increasing population downriver. Constructed between 1899 and 1902, the largest masonry dam ever attempted and completed at the time. The original dam performed as expected, but increased irrigation demands – more cotton to help pay down Egyptian debt to Britain – led to raising the height of the dam on two occasions – 1907-1912 and 1929-1933. Electric generators became added onto the project in 1960 and 1985. The irrigation and electric demand kept increasing eventually leading to the building of the new High Dam in 1960.

problems

Initially, the height of the dam remained limited – especially after French public outcry – to protect the temples on Philae. But Philae and its temples remained underwater for most of the year. Only from July to October was the complex above water when the dam sluices opened. Eventually, the entire complex was removed – 1977-1979 – to the nearby island of Agilikia allowing the temple to sit above the impounded waters. The project very similar to Abu Simbel, only here a cofferdam had to be built first since the complex was already inundated. Only then could the temple be disassembled, transferred and reassembled.

Sediment and comprehensive flood control management problems have plagued the Low Dam – exacerbated by the High Dam. Heightening of the dam made a lock system on the west side of the dam inoperable ending navigation on the river past the dam. Also, each time the dam rose higher, more Nubians living in villages along the river became displaced. Those Nubians moved to higher grounds while many moved north to Cairo and Alexandria working domestically.

HIGH DAM

Egypt’s population continued to grow along with desires to increase hydroelectric power. Between 1960 and 1970, in response to the increased siltation in the lake behind the Low Dam which increasingly limited the dam’s ability to control Nile floods and provide a stable level of irrigation, the High Dam project took place.

the new dam

After Gamal Abdel Nasser’s successful coup in 1954, the High Dam became an idea of increasing importance with the new regime. The new dam rises 111 meters in height while stretching across 5.5 kilometers in length. The reservoir created held 41 billion cubic meters of water. Egypt and Sudan agreed to splitting the water with a treaty signed between the two nations in 1959.

The lake – Lake Nasser in Egypt and Lake Nubia in Sudan – extends 350 kilometers in Egypt and another 150 kilometers into Dusan. At the widest point, it stretches to a width of 35 kilometers with an average width of 10-12 kilometers. Maximum depth near the dam face reaches down to 182 meters with an average depth of 25 meters. The hydroelectric station on the east side of the dam can generate up to 2,100 MW amounting to about half of the power used by Egypt during full operation.

Despite the benefits the High Dam provides, the same problems troubling the Low Dam are magnified here – loss of sediments have had huge impacts on the Delta; soil salination from accumulation of salts which used to flush out with annual floods; rising groundwater tables – up to 1-2 meters in some areas; nutrient loss due also to loss of sediments formerly provided by floods. These and other problems have cropped up following the dam.

HUMAN DISPLACEMENT

Most international attention centered upon the impending flooding out of the magnificent temple at Abu Simbel dedicated to Ramses II and his wife. But ancient ruins were only one problem with the inundations created.

Along with birds, animals, fish and invertebrate disruptions, about 100,000 Nubians became displaced by the new lake – roughly half in Egypt and half in Sudan. These displacements occurred forcibly between 1963 and 1964. Egypt sent the majority of its Nubians to an arid area east of Kom Ombo – Nasr al-Nuba – giving the new residents new villages with concrete housing and irrigated lands for cash crops like sugar cane. They actually did not own their houses nor the lands upon which they worked. The 46 newly created villages retained the same names as the villages from which they were uprooted. The big difference is the homes now overllok the desert instead of the river upon which they lie for millennia.  

In Sudan, the displaced Nubians were shifted to New Halfa along the Atbarah River – also known as the Red or Black Nile – near the Eritrean border.

loss of ancestral homeland

Promises of fertile lands equivalent to those lost underneath the flood waters, modern infrastructure and a right of return have fallen short, increasing the reliance of the displaced upon government subsidies. Traditional agricultural practices built upon the annual floods lost along the way resulted in widespread unemployment and poverty – over 50% unemployment in some communities. Over 40 Nubian villages lie underneath the waters of Lake Nasser.

The Egyptian Constitution of 2014 – enacted by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi after the ouster of Adly Mansour 8 June – reaffirmed the right of return to dislocated Nubians, but a 2018 law has since prioritized investment over reclamation. Egypt has allocated either land or financial equivalents to over 3,600 families for properties lost in the 1960s. Those dislocated Nubians in Sudan have no such programs. Resettled Nubians face discrimination both in employment and education. In Sudan, settlers experienced land fragmentation and problems getting water for their crops.

RACE AND GEOPOLITICS

The popular view in Egyptian society, basically saw Nubians as dark-skinned help who as backward peasants in need of modernization provided by resettlement. From the international community, Nubian heritage remained the priority with the grand UNESCO campaigns initiated to save some of the biggest Nubian treasures – Abu Simbel, Philae, Kalabsha and Beit el-Wali. The Nubian Museum in Aswan is full of artifacts saved from the inundations. Innumerable smaller sites, however, were lost. But the Nubian people, unlike their heritage, were left on their own.

Unlike the period of resettling Nubians to higher ground after the construction of the Low Dam, Abdel Nasser was not in favor of resettlement, especially to a people loving on the Egyptian border. Fears always lie in the background where of a unified Nubian state with Nubians from both Sudan and Egypt numerically and ethnically dominant. In order to develop the Nubians, Nasser justified their relocation. Similar programs went forth in Sudan, as well.

TOURISTIC NUBIA

While most Nubians live away from their drowned ancestral homes, the average tourist can gain a little glimpse of what was lost. The original Low Dam submerged ten Nubian villages. Eight more went underwater after the first dam heightening in 1912. The second dam raising led to another ten villages disappearing.

With the High Dam, supposedly the Nubians had the right to return and settle high above where their older communities lie beneath the water. But these areas also lie close to the Egyptian border with much of the land left to the Defense Department.

A visit to Aswan brings a tourist probably the closest to old Nubia than anywhere else. Many live in Aswan along both sides of the Nile below the Low Dam. Looking out from the waterfront of Aswan, a series of islands lay in the river. You will notice the river flows much quicker here in a mild imitation of the now-drowned First Cataract.

islands in the nile

The large island directly opposite is Elephantine Island where the original Nilometer stood at the base of the Temple of Khnum. Opposite, on the east bank is the Old Cataract Hotel of Agatha Christie fame and extremely high room prices. Most islands have some form of tourist places to stay as little tourist boats make their way through the archipelago. Above the west bank of the river above the south end of Elephantine Island stands the large mausoleum of Aga Khan, the 48th Imam of Nizari Isma’ili Shia Islam. His successor as Imam was his grandson who in 2013 had a net worth of $13.3 billion. He lies buried in the mausoleum, as well.

Most tourists come into contact with Nubia either visiting “Nubian Villages” on Elephantine Island or further upstream on the west bank in Nagaa Suhayl Gharb. Here, houses decorated in various colors greet the visitor. Camels wander about, their owners looking for tourists who want a ride. Guest houses abound here on the islands both below the dam and in the lake above.

All in all, Nubian reality here is a long way from the Nubia of Nasr al-Nuba, New Wadi Halfa or New Halfa. With a lake and its empty shore now a 550-kilometer vacuum on both banks of the Nile standing as a geographic divider between Nubians of the two modern-day nations.