Faras Cathedral

Faras Cathedral is the ruined episcopal church at the archaeological site of Faras in Lower Nubia, northern Sudan, notable for its medieval Christian wall paintings. The site yielded painted plaster panels and other finds during mid-20th-century rescue excavations.

The surviving painted panels and fragments recovered at Faras depict bishops, saints and biblical scenes and are important examples of Nubian Christian art; many of these panels are displayed in museums rather than in situ. The exposed foundations and chapel remains at the site illustrate the layout of a medieval cathedral complex.

Faras was a bishopric in medieval Nubia; the cathedral complex dates to the Christian period of Nubia, roughly between the early medieval centuries and the later Middle Ages. In the 1960s, salvage excavations led by Polish archaeologists as part of a UNESCO campaign recorded and removed painted plaster panels before the site was flooded by the creation of Lake Nasser/Lake Nubia.

The site lies in historic Lower Nubia in northern Sudan on the Nile valley; the original site was inundated by reservoir waters and many finds were transferred to museums in Khartoum and Warsaw.

• Painted wall panels: Many of the cathedral's painted panels and wall decorations were removed during UNESCO-led salvage excavations and are now held in museums in Khartoum and Warsaw.