These are not the latest Egyptian monuments in the Sudan, nor are the
temples of Naga and Mesawwarat the most ancient, though they belong
to the Roman period and are decidedly barbarian as to their style and,
especially, as to their decoration. The southernmost as well as latest
relic of Egypt in the Sudan is the Christian church of Soba, on the Blue
Mie, a few miles above Khartum. In it was found a stone ram, an emblem
of Amen-Ra, which had formerly stood in the temple of Naga and had been
brought to Soba perhaps under the impression that it was the Christian
Lamb. It was removed to the garden of the governor-general's palace at
Khartum, where it now stands.
The church at Soba is a relic of the Christian kingdom of Alua, which
succeeded the realm of the Candaces. One of its chief seats was at
Dongola, and all Nubia is covered with the ruins of its churches. It
was, of course, an offshoot of the Christianity of Egypt, but a late
one, since Isis was still worshipped at Philse in the sixth century,
long after the Edict of Theodosius had officially abolished paganism
throughout the Roman world, and the Nubians were at first zealous
votaries of the goddess of Philo. So also when Egypt fell beneath the
sway of the Moslem in the seventh century, Nubia remained an independent
Christian state, and continued so down to the twelfth century, when the
soldiers of Islam conquered the country.
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