Nubia Sudan
Overview
This time, Maya Tsoclis takes us to Sudan, the biggest country
of Africa, unfortunately connected only with wars and humanitarian
crises. The journey begins from the capital, Khartoum, situated on
the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers, in a strategic
position. When Mohammed Ali conquered the region, he appreciated
this position, and contributed to the city's development to an
important trading centre in the mid-19th century.
Maya will explore Khartoum and meet with the ever-present Greek
community. She visits the school which now houses only 40 children
and meets Greek entrepreneurs who seem optimistic about the
future.
Soon after, she takes off, riding a 4x4 to the north, for a
journey that will last ten days and will lead her to Wadi Halfa,
near the Egyptian border. This journey has many things in store:
cross-desert trips, visits to villages with wonderful architecture,
night-stays in the homes of hospitable families and unexpected
archaeological sites, since Sudan was, for thousands of years, the
meeting point between the people of central Africa and the
Mediterranean world…
In ancient times, today's northern Sudan was known as Nubia. Maya
Tsoclis travels to this unknown, to most of us, region. Nubia had
been conquered by the Egyptians, who left their indelible mark in
the region, and led to the birth of the Kush civilization, which
survived until the 4th century B.C. Later, there came the Christian
missionaries but also, the Muslim Arabs, who established Islam.
African tribes settled in these vast expanses before the Egyptians
appear once again, during the 19th century, together with the
English.
The program crosses the Bayouda Desert, offering landscapes so
pure that they sweep away the garbage of our western routine; Maya
visits Byzantine excavation sites full of Greek inscriptions,
climbs up Amun's Throne in Jebel Barkal and discovers the
fascinating architecture of this region. It's an adventurous
journey reminds us the real meaning of hospitality.
Maya travels to northern Sudan and visits the most impressive
archaeological excavation site in the world: in Kerma, the renowned
Swiss archaeologist Charles Bonnet oversees dozens of Nubian
workers who, with modest tools, uncover the history of their
country. The journey continuous through villages of extraordinary
architecture. Maya crosses the Nile, visits Egyptian temples and
after many adventures, she arrives in Wadi Halfa, the frontier
Sudanese town, which sank under the waters of the lake Nasser. The
lake and the Aswan Dam, which created it, are thought to be the
greatest achievement of Egypt, that managed to harness nature
while, at the same time, it saved many temples, such as Abu Simbel
or the monuments of the Philae island. However, no one's talking
about the consequences that this dam has brought upon the cultural
wealth of Sudanese Nubia, where monuments and villages disappeared
forever. Our show sails across the lake, makes a tour around Aswan,
in Egypt, and sails up the mythical Nile until it reaches the
popular tourist site of Luxor.