Kawa, Sudan

Kawa is located in Northeast Africa
Kawa
Kawa
Location of Kawa
Granite ram of Amun with King Taharqa. Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, from Kawa. On display at the British Museum.

Kawa, known as Gematon ("Aten is perceived") in ancient Egyptian texts[1] and as Patigga or Patinga during Greco-Roman times, is a town and archaeological site in Sudan, located between the third and fourth cataracts of the Nile on the east bank of the river, across from Dongola. In ancient times it was the site of several temples to the Egyptian god Amun, built by the pharaohs Amenhotep III and Tutankhamun, and by Taharqa and other kings of Kush.[2]

Westerners became aware of the site in the late 19th century.[3] Small digs were carried out in 1929 and 1930 and an extensive excavation began 22 November 1930.[3] A new era of exploration at the site began in 1997.[4]

Shrine of Taharqa

A temple of Amun-Re commissioned by Taharqa once existed at Kawa.[5][6] A small shrine from within that temple, known as the Shrine of Taharqa, is in the Ashmolean Museum.[7][6]

References

  1. ^ Derek A. Welsby, Kawa: The Pharaonic and Kushite town of Gematon. History and Archaeology of the Site, p. 8.
  2. ^ Wilkinson, Richard H. (2000). The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. pp. 11, 232
  3. ^ a b Kirwan, L. P. (1936). "Preliminary Report of the Oxford University Excavations at Kawa, 1935-1936". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 22 (2): 200–211. doi:10.2307/3854627. JSTOR 3854627.
  4. ^ Derek A. Welsby, Kawa: The Pharaonic and Kushite town of Gematon. History and Archaeology of the Site, p. 5.
  5. ^ Macadam, M. F. Laming (1955). The Temples of Kawa II. History and Archaeology of the Site. Oxford University Press. p. 61.
  6. ^ a b Armstrong, Caroline H (2015). "The Two Non-Blue Amuns of the Shrine of Taharqa at Kawa". The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 101 (1). SAGE Publications: 177–195. doi:10.1177/030751331510100109. ISSN 0307-5133.
  7. ^ "Taharqa Shrine". Ashmolean Museum.
  8. ^ Museum notice

19°07′N 30°29.48′E / 19.117°N 30.49133°E / 19.117; 30.49133