Serra East

On the east bank of the Nile, 312 km upriver from Philae. A long-abandoned fortress of the Egyptian New Kingdom, reoccupied in Late Christian times for the sake of its high, still-standing fortification walls. The whole interior was densely filled with Late Christian houses, as well as Nubia's only two-story church. Three other small, late churches stood just outside the walls. The churches were excavated by G.S. Mileham in 1909; the fortress interior was excavated by the Chicago Oriental Institute in 1961-2. The latter excavations are largely unpublished at this writing.

Sources: Mileham 1910, 40-47; Knudstad 1966.

(Contributed by William Y. Adams.)