The Nubian Museum (officially the International Museum of Nubia) is an archaeological museum located in

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 ...

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...

. It was built following 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 ...

, to a design by architect Mahmoud El-Hakim for an estimated construction cost of (approximately US$22 million at the time). Dedicated to

Nubian Nubian may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Nubia, a region along the Nile river in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan. *Nubian people *Nubian languages *Anglo-Nubian goat, a breed of goat * Nubian ibex * , several ships of the Britis ...

culture and civilization, it was inaugurated on November 23, 1997, and was awarded the

Aga Khan Award for Architecture The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) is an architectural prize established by Aga Khan IV in 1977. It aims to identify and reward architectural concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of Muslim societies in the fields ...

in 2001.

Building

Nubian Museum, Aswan, Egypt, Egyptian antiquities 2

The Nubian Museum covers an area of 50,000 square meters, 7,000 of which are devoted to the building, while the rest are devoted to gardens and other public spaces.Egy.com, The Nubian Museum
Accessed 22 June 2010 The building has three floors for displaying and housing, in addition to a library and information center. The largest part of the museum is occupied by the monumental pieces, reflecting phases of the development of Nubian culture and civilization.

Three thousand pieces of Egyptian

antiquities Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Meso ...

, representing various ages; Geological,

Pharaonic Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

and

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

, were registered. The open-door exhibition includes 90 rare monumental pieces, while the internal halls contain 50 invaluable pieces dating back to pre-historic times, 503 pieces belong to the Pharaonic period, 52 to the Coptic era, 103 to the Islamic age, 140 to the Nubian era, in addition to 360 pieces reflecting the history of Aswan.

Landscape

The Museum is built on a steep cliff, which enables it to embody a full scale design for the

Nile river The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...

from its origins in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

and

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

to Egypt. The edifice is surrounded by a Natural Botanical Garden, which contains a large variety of Egyptian flora.

Administration

Since the museum opening, the administration has kept upgrading their caretakers. The Head Director of Nubia Museum since opening has been Dr.Ossama A.W Abd El Maguid (known as "Ossama Hassoun"). He is an

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

and a member of the

International Council of Museums The International Council of Museums (ICOM) is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to museums, maintaining formal relations with UNESCO and having a consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Founded in 1946, I ...

(ICOM) ''Saving Egyptian Culture Program''.

References

Bibliography

* 1982: Nubia Museum, Architectural and Exhibition Program, EAO-UNESCO, Unpublished report. * 1997: Gaballa, Ali Gaballa, Nubia Museum, (Cairo: Ministry of Culture, The Higher Council of Antiquities, Museum Sector, Save Nubia Fund). * 1998: Kaper, Olaf E. The New Nubia Museum of Aswan (http://www.assemblage.group.shef.ac.uk/4/4nubia.html. * 2005: Abdel Wareth Abdel Meguid, O. “The Nubia Museum and Community”, Museum International, (Paris: UNESCO, May,), 225–226. * 2000: Marino Giuseppe, De Simone, Costanza, Nubia Submerged: Through their Eyes with their Own Words. Cairo: Agenzia Italiana. (in cooperazione con Giuseppe Marino) (90 pp.). * 2009: De Simone, Costanza, “The Documentation Center on Nubia at the Nubia Museum of Aswan”. Egyptian and Egyptological Documents, Archives (Università di Milano. Pontetremoli, Milano), 173–178. * 2015: De Simone, Costanza, Nubia and Nubians: The ‘Museumization’ of a Culture. Saarbrücken, Germania: Lambert Academic Publishing (305 pp.).

External links

An upper Aswan museum, the Nubian Museum. From EgyptSites
History museums in Egypt Egyptological collections in Egypt Open-air museums in Egypt Aswan Museums established in 1997 1997 establishments in Egypt History of Nubia Ethnic museums in Egypt Nubians in Egypt {{Egypt-museum-stub