Unearthed were Meroitic inscriptions, Old Nubian documents, a large amount of leatherwork, two palatial structures and several churches, some of them with their paintings still intact.

[1] Rising from its flat surroundings as a table mountain with steep slopes on all sides, Gebel Adda lay in Lower Nubia, on the east bank of the Nile, between the first and second cataracts, five kilometers south-east of Abu Simbel.

While most of the excavated material remains unpublished it seems that the hilltop of Gebel Adda was settled at least since the late Meroitic period, probably from the 2nd century AD.

[4] From the late Christian period to the sixteenth century, Faras, Qasr Ibrim and Gebel Adda were the largest fortified cities in Lower Nubia.

Large parts of the town were rebuilt in the 13th century, in addition to the palace area, other larger buildings and a church were built.

Sultan Baibars I sent a force to overthrow the Makurian king David at Dongola in 1276 in response to previous Nubian raids .

Anton von Prokesch-Osten counted seventy small burial mounds made of stones and clay bricks in the sand hollows at the foot of the mountain, believed by the locals to be the tombs of Islamic martyrs (saints) who died in the conquest of the Christian settlement.

[12] In 1932–1933, Ugo Monneret de Villard carried out excavations in Lower Nubia on behalf of the Egyptian antiquities authority and with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

[13] The ancient and medieval city lay on the crest of the steep hill, from which a slightly flatter spur pushes north to bank of the Nile.

The only access was a steep and narrow path, partly involving stairs, which ascended to the spur and from there led first into the northern suburbs, and then on into the city proper through a massive gate that was reinforced in the fourteenth century.

This route was protected by an adobe tower; in the Meroitic period, the city wall ran to the north of this, later to be found by archaeologists under Christian- and Islamic-period ruins.

The hill reached its highest point in the southwest, where scattered fragments of granite columns identified around 1900 indicated the site of a larger church.

A small passageway opened into a central hall (anteroom) divided by four columns, with a cella at the back and two adjoining rooms off to the side.

[16] The early Christians converted the temple into a church, covering the walls with a layer of plaster to hide the reliefs of the Egyptian gods, and painting them with frescoes.

Prokesch-Osten describes walls richly covered with Egyptian hieroglyphs and images alongside Christian motifs such as Saint George with a red horse above the baptismal font.