Qasr
Ibrim is an archaeological
site in Lower Nubia. It was originally a major city perched on a cliff above
the Nile, but the flooding of Lake Nasser after the construction of the Aswan
High Dam transformed it into an island and flooded its outskirts. Qasr Ibrim is
the only major archaeological site in Lower Nubia to have survived the Nile
floods. Both prior to and after the Nile floods, it has remained a major site
for archaeological investigations.
Human habitation at the site dates from the Late
Kingdom, but it reached its greatest prominence in the Middle Ages, when the
area was the home of the Eparch of Nobatia. Qasr Ibrim is the source of the
largest collection of Old Nubian documents ever found, including the records of
the Eparch. The site was inhabited until the 1840s. Today the island is closed
to all but archaeologists.
This important site derives its name from the nearby
village of Ibrim, on the east bank of the Nile. Wasr Ibrim is also notable for
its fortress of Qasr Ibrim ("The Castle of Ibrim"), which certainly
stood on older pharaonic foundations. Partly
built "in Roman times under the prefecture of Gaius Petronius during
Augustus' reign," it was originally a pharaonic site with material from
the New Kingdom and later periods of Egyptian history being found here. This is
established by reused and isolated monuments from this older period: the
earliest record is a dated Year 8 stela of Amenhhotep I while "a temple
structure of Taharqa (with a painting showing the king offering to a god)"
is also known here.