Travel Guide Old Dongola دنقلا العجوز

The richest Christian site in Nubia. The ancient capital of the Kingdom of Makourie, the first Christian power in the medieval Sudan, is located south of the Nubian loop of the Nile River, overlooking the river. The Nubian had here a strong place of Christianity that contint Egyptian Islam until the th century, when a Muslim, Kanz Ad-Dawlah, became the sovereign of Dongola. However, Christian power had already lost many of its authority in previous centuries, under the combined effects of Muslim influence to the north and east, and the decline in the commercial pension from the Nile. At the pinnacle of its splendour, Dongola possessed a basilica, which remains only the foundations and columns in granite, and more than a dozen churches with leaded plane, some still retaining beautiful frescoes representing Christ, or local saints and bishops.