Aniba was a village in

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

, about 230 km south of

Aswan Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the ...

. The place is today flooded by the

Lake Nasser Lake Nasser ( ar, بحيرة ناصر ', ) is a vast reservoir in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Before construction, Sudan was against the building of Lake Nasser because it would encro ...

. In ancient times it was an important town and called Miam. The region around the town was one of the most fertile in

Lower Nubia Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, and all its modern p ...

. Earliest remains at Aniba date around 3000 BC and belong to the

A-Group culture The A-Group culture was an ancient culture that flourished between the First and Second Cataracts of the Nile in Nubia. It lasted from 3800 BC to 3100 BC. Overview In 1907, the Egyptologist George A. Reisner first discovered artifacts belong ...

. A few cemeteries belonging to them were found. In the Middle Kingdom (about 2000 to 1700 BC) the region was ruled by Egyptians and in the

Twelfth Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some ...

there was built a fortress with a small town. At the beginning of the New Kingdom (about 1550 BC) the town was extended and was about 200 x 400 m big, with a wall and gates. During the New Kingdom the town grew and had several suburbs. Within the town proper stood the temple for ''

Horus Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the P ...

of Miam''. When excavated it was only badly preserved but might be a foundation of the Middle Kingdom. North of the town there still stood a Nubian village belonging to the

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

. Around the town were huge cemeteries, some of them belonging to Nubians, but other tombs were erected in purely Egyptian style. It is not known for sure whether the people buried here were Nubians that adopted Egyptian culture or whether these were Egyptians. One rather simple tomb belonged to the

Viceroy of Kush The former Kingdom of Kerma in Nubia, was a province of ancient Egypt from the 16th century BCE to eleventh century BCE. During this period, the polity was ruled by a viceroy who reported directly to the Egyptian Pharaoh. It is believed that the ...

Pinehesy Pinehesy, Panehesy or Panehasy, depending on the transliteration, was Viceroy of Kush during the reign of Ramesses XI, the last king of the Egyptian 20th Dynasty. The sources He is named in the following dated sources: #his name appears in the ...

, an important person also known from other sources. A decorated rock cut tomb belonging to the ''deputy of Lower Nubia'' Pennut was relocated to

New Amada New Amada is a promontory located near Aswan in Egypt. Created during the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, it houses three important temples, structures, and other remains that have been relocated here from others sites ...

as part of the

International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia The International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia was the relocation of 22 monuments in Lower Nubia, in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan, between 1960 and 1980. The success of the project, in particular the creation of a coalition of 50 ...

. The latter office had most likely its headquarter in Aniba.

Torgny Säve-Söderbergh Torgny Säve-Söderbergh (born 29 June 1914 in Lund; died 21 May 1998 in Uppsala) was a Swedish writer, translator, and professor of Egyptology at Uppsala University from 1950 to 1980. He was the younger brother of paleontologist Gunnar Säve-Sö ...

: ''Aniba'', in:

Wolfgang Helck Hans Wolfgang Helck (16 September 1914 – 27 August 1993) was a German Egyptologist, considered one of the most important Egyptologists of the 20th century. From 1956 until his retirement in 1979 he was a professor at the University of Hamburg. H ...

, Eberhard Otto (editors), ''Lexikon der Ägyptologie'', I. Wiesbaden 1975, , p. 272-278

References

{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Egypt Former populated places in Egypt Populated places established in the 3rd millennium BC 30th-century BC establishments