THE GREAT ENCLOSURE

This ruined architectural complex is the largest on the surface of the méroïtique era (43 000 m ²). A temple of Amun is adjacent to the east, but only remains of rams figures at the entrance can guess the nature of this place. Inside, the walls are blank. Finally, not quite. For centuries, the curious have been putting on them profane graffiti, inscriptions, naive drawings, people, animals… The interest of this great forum lies in large part, beyond the scale of the constructions, in all these works of art from the poor, these testimonies of the past, which evoke scenes of everyday life, fabulous descriptions, of the scenes. erotic engravings… The legend surrounding this place, with its maze of corridors and colonnades, wants him to have served the Sovereign of "love nest" a little mystical, but we have discovered several periods of constructions, including the oldest is before the méroïtique civilization. The presence of large ramps of access and the representation of elephants have underpinned the thesis of a sacred temple erected for these animals. By walking between these walls, from one inscription to another (do not miss those of Frédéric Cailliaud and other explorers), you may make your own idea.