Qasr Ibrim Once poised on a bluff overlooking the Nile, what remains now of Qasr Ibrim is what survived the building of the Aswan High Dam in the 1950s. The temples that once stood here withstood the orders by Theodosius I in 390 CE to discontinue the ancient religious practices for some time, though a few inevitably were converted to churches or destroyed, such as the Temple of Isis. In the 7th century, one was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, built from the ruins of previous temples. You view this ancient fortification from afar, as it is no longer accessible for tourists to walk through. However, many of the key artifacts from Qasr Ibrim were relocated to the Nubian Museum in Aswan, such as shrines to Horus, Hathor and a stele relief tablet from Seti I was moved to Kalabsha. The oldest hieroglyphic evidence at Qasr Ibrim dates to the reign of Amenhotep I in the early New Kingdom (1539-1295 BCE) and was discovered in one of the converted Christian churches on the ancient site. |