The Nubian Museum
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The magnificent Nubian Museum was built in Aswan with the express intention of commemorating Nubian history and culture. In order to store the numerous artifacts amassed during the Nubian Rescue mission following the construction of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s, which resulted in the rise of the water levels of Lake Nasser and put the monuments in danger, it was designed by an Egyptian architect by the name of Mahmoud Al-Hakim for a total cost of $22 MILLION (75 MILLION LE) paid by its sponsor the UNESCO.
The Nubian Museum’s architecture
The stunning architecture of the Nubian museum, which was inaugurated in November 1997 and aims to preserve the architectural history of Nubian villages, combines a contemporary structure with enclosed walls covered in limestone.
The 50,000 square meter Nubian Museum includes 7,000 square meters for the building and 43,000 square meters for the grounds. It also includes artificial lakes, landscaped gardens, and a massive building with three floors for displaying and housing 3,000 artifacts dating back to 3500 BC from various historical eras and more than 500,000 exhibits that cover the entire history of the Nubian Culture. In 2001, the museum received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Museum of the Nubian artifacts
The Nubian museum serves as a mystical gateway that whisks tourists back in time to the prehistoric kingdom of Kush, the Pharaonic era, the Greco-Roman era, the Coptic & Islamic era, and finally the recovery of the historic structures from beneath Lake Nasser. More than 80 statues of well-known people from Nubian history and the ancient gods of Nubia may be found in the museum’s garden.
There are numerous exhibition halls, a Centre for cultural activities, and an information Centre in the museum. It houses an extraordinary collection of monuments, including enormous statues, ivory and ebony artifacts, and highly significant documents and studies on Nubian history, archaeology, and culture.
