Debeira is an archaeological site in Sudan situated on the eastern bank of the Nile some 20 kilometres north of

Wadi Halfa (, , ":wikt:esparto, Esparto Valley") is a city in the Northern (state), Northern state of Sudan on the shores of Lake Nasser, Lake Nubia near the Egypt–Sudan border, border with Egypt. It is the terminus of a rail transport in Sudan, rail lin ...

Early period

Excavations brought to light a necropolis of the

C-Group culture The C-Group culture is an archaeological culture found in Lower Nubia, which dates from 2400 BCE to 1550 BCE. It was named by George A. Reisner. With no central site and no written evidence about what these people called themselves, Reisner ...

Jean Vercoutter Jean Vercoutter (20 January 1911 – 16 July 2000) was a French Egyptologist. One of the pioneers of archaeological research into Sudan from 1953, he was Director of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale from 1977 to 1981. Biography B ...

, New Egyptian Inscriptions, Kush nr. IV,1956, pp.66-86. The necropolis site dates to ca. 2400–1550 BCE. At Debeira-East a wall-painted funerary chapel of the Nubian prince (''chief of Teh-khet'') Djehutyhotep from the time of

Hatshepsut Hatshepsut ( ; BC) was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from until (Low Chronology) and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second c ...

and

Thutmosis III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, (1479–1425 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He is regarded as one of the greatest warriors, military commanders, and milita ...

was found. Other finds include a painted sarcophagus with iconography of the

Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties together constitut ...

. The sarcophagus and the painted scenes of the burial chamber were taken to the

Sudan National Museum The National Museum of Sudan or Sudan National Museum, abbreviated SNM, is a two-story building, constructed in 1955 and established as national museum in 1971. Before its destruction during the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civ ...

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum is the capital city of Sudan as well as Khartoum State. With an estimated population of 7.1 million people, Greater Khartoum is the largest urban area in Sudan. Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flo ...

prior to the flooding of Debeira by

Lake Nasser Lake Nasser ( ', ) is a large reservoir (water), reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It was created by the construction of the Aswan Dam, Aswan High Dam and is one of the List of reservoirs by volume, largest man-made lakes in the wo ...

Middle ages

The site was occupied by a small town or large village in the middle ages. Excavations between 1961 and 1964 by the University of Ghana showed the existence of a town with churches, a cemetery, and several large buildings. The site was inhabited between the 7th and 9th centuries, and abandoned after a decline that continued into the tenth century. The site was later redeveloped in the 11th century. The community consisted of several hundred people during this period. P. L. and M. Shinnie, ''New Light on Medieval Nubia'', The Journal of African History, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1965), pp. 263-273, Cambridge University Press,

References

{{reflist Archaeological sites in Sudan History of Nubia Former populated places in Egypt