map of Meroitic Nubia
Posted on 12/06/2008 3:31:26 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The Meroe High Dam, otherwise known as the Multi-Purpose Hydro Project or Hamdab Dam, is well underway -- and the archaeological remains of the ancient African kingdom of Meroe which developed along the upper reaches of the Nile is destined to oblivion. The purpose of the dam being constructed close to the Fourth Cataract, about 200 kilometres north of Khartoum, is to generate electricity. It is the largest hydropower project currently under construction in Africa. With a length of some nine kilometres, and a crest height of up to 67 kilometres it is reminiscent of the High Dam at Aswan constructed in the 1960s. It too is designed with a concrete-faced rock-fill barrage on each river bank, the left river channel with a clay core, and the right with a live water section. Once completed, its 200-kilometre long reservoir, with a capacity to produce 1,250 megawatts of power, will displace 50,000 people and inundate countless archaeological sites including Meroe in the African kingdom of Kush, sub-Saharan Africa's earliest urban civilisation... The first century AD marked the peak of Meroitic ascendancy, and its flourishing economy is reflected in the advanced culture seen in the superior quality of Meroitic crafts, particularly fine work in jewellery and pottery. Then started a slow decline, precipitated first by the inroads of two desert peoples, the Blemmyes and the Noba; then in competition with the new kingdom of Axum in northern Ethiopia when it emerged as the largest commercial centre in north-east Africa; and finally, in about 350 AD, when the first Christian king of Axum led a campaign into the region and defeated Meroitic troops near the confluence of the White Nile and the Atbara. By the beginning of the fourth century Meroe was no more.
(Excerpt) Read more at weekly.ahram.org.eg ...
map of Meroitic Nubia
royal pyramids in the north Meroe cemetery
inlaid chest from the cemetery of Karonog; elite Meroitic houses at Ash-Shaukan (right)
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The space elevator isn't much higher.
:’) Cool. NASA can start going by boat.
I see Meroe had no immigration policy either.... ;)
Going where? Near as I can tell they have been going in circles for years. And with The Big O taking the wheel, even those rimshots will be a thing of the past.
I am looking at the same thing on my google earth.
Thanks! Beautiful landscape there. Reminds me of the Clementine pictures. ;’)
That’s one place. :’)
(That's gonna leave a mark.)
> I still remember when Egypt built the Aswan Dam, and they moved the entire temple of Abu Simbel to higher ground above Lake Nasser.
The temple would have been drowned under that useless lake, except for the millions in international donations.
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