The "UMMA" project published information about the excavations, during which they found a whole complex of rooms in the form of domes and crypts, and an underground chamber. The finds date back to the 16th - 19th centuries AD. Archaeologists worked in the city of Stara Dongola, Sudan.
"UMMA - the urban metamorphosis of the community of the medieval African capital", research conducted by specialists of the Center for Mediterranean Archeology of the University of Warsaw.
The peculiarity of these premises is what archaeologists saw inside. The rooms themselves were built of clay bricks. But the walls are decorated with religious frescoes.
University of Warsaw
"He was one of the last rulers of Christian Makuria, whose reign marks the beginning of the end of the kingdom. For unknown reasons, King David attacked Egypt, which responded by invading Nubia, and Dongola was conquered for the first time in its history. Perhaps the painting was created when the Mamluk army approached the city or besieged it," archaeologists comment.
University of Warsaw
Archaeologists believe that the remains of a grandiose room, next to a crypt room with inscriptions of King David, are actually the ruins of a majestic cathedral called the Great Church of Jesus. Records about this cathedral are contained in historical texts.
Old Dongola is the remains of an ancient city of Nubia, during the Middle Ages. It is located along the bank in the east of the Nile River.
Nubia is a historical region that consisted of different states and cultures. Among them were the Christian states of Nubia in the 7th-14th centuries, before the time when Islam came to the territory. The Nile Valley was the main territory of Nubia.
Fresco (from the Italian fresco, ex. "fresh") is a painting on wet plaster, one of the techniques of wall painting, opposite to dry painting. They were made with the help of cheese, pieces of stone, natural dyes and other means. Wikipedia.
