Saï is a large island in the Nile River in Nubia between the second and third cataracts in Sudan. It is 12 km long and 5.5 km wide. The Egyptians intermittently occupied Saï during the New Kingdom. In the Makurian period, it was the centre of a diocese, while in the second half of the 16th century, the Ottomans founded a fortress on the island.
Location of Saï island
Saï Island is situated between the Second and Third Nile Cataracts. It is 12 kilometres long and 5 kilometres wide. Jebel Adu is a widely visible landmark in the island’s northern part.
Monuments
The northeast portion of the island contains a New Kingdom of Egypt temple and numerous mills associated with ancient gold production. Nearby is an Ottoman Empire fort composed of sandstone quarried along the river banks and spolia bearing the cartouche of Amenhotep IV, amongst other 18th Dynasty rulers. Numerous round tombs are close to this island.
History
Sai has a very long and rich occupational history, starting from the Palaeolithic.
Later prehistoric sites provide evidence about the transition to food production and the use of resources in the specific island environment. Vast Kerma necropoleis with monumental tumulus superstructures indicate that Sai was a significant centre of that culture, second only to Kerma itself. The island’s name in Ancient Egyptian texts, Shaat, returns to this period.
The Pharaonic sites cluster on the eastern side of Sai. They comprise a large fortified town with a temple of Amun, founded immediately upon the region’s conquest in the early New Kingdom (c. 1550 BC). Two contemporary cemeteries are situated close to Sai. They feature super pyramidal structures like the elite tombs of/in other New Kingdom necropoleis such as Tombos and Soleb. The town site and the cemeteries reveal continued use and reuse in later periods. Several displaced blocks of a Meroitic temple have recently been identified.
Several Meroitic cemeteries further testify to the importance of Sai in that period. At least one of them, close to the ancient town, shows evidence of pyramidal superstructures comparable to Sedeinga. Two cemeteries with the typical large post-Meroitic tumuli are located near the island’s northern tip.
In medieval times, Sai was a bishop’s see. Several medieval settlement sites have been identified across the island. The remains of a substantial church close to the post-Meroitic burial grounds have been suggested to represent the cathedral.
In the early 1580s, an Ottoman army advanced up the Nile and conquered Sai. They continued into the area of the Third Cataract, where a Funj army eventually stopped them at Hannek, opposite Tombos. After an inconclusive battle, an open frontier area seems to have been established. The Funj installed a border post south of Hannek, while the Ottomans built a fortress on Sai – right on top of the New Kingdom town. The island became part of the southernmost Ottoman province on the Nile, marking the maximum extent of this vast empire until 1823.
