An important city in medieval Nubia, and the departure point for caravans west to Darfur and Kordofan, from the fourth to the fourteenth century Old Dongola was the capital of the Makurian state.

The urban center of the population moved downstream 80 km (50 miles) to the opposite side of the Nile during the nineteenth century, becoming the modern Dongola.

Its southern part features a citadel and urban buildings, while in the north, splendid suburban residences have been uncovered.

The Book of Knowledge, a travelogue compiled by a Spanish monk soon after 1348, mentions that Genoese merchants had settled in Old Dongola; they may have penetrated there as a consequence of the commercial treaty of 1290 between Genoa and Egypt.

[3] In the rich assemblage of texts in Greek, Coptic, and Old Nubian found in the archbishop's crypt,[1] a dedication to the Holy Trinity also appears.

[4] In 1317 it was turned into a mosque, an event which is preserved in a foundation stela erected by Sayf al-Din Abdullah Barshambu.

A surviving inscription erected in Old Dongola bears the date of 1317, is commonly understood to be the record of a military expedition sent by the Sultan of Egypt to place his nominee Abdullah, perhaps a Muslim Nubian, on the throne.

The French traveller Charles-Jacques Poncet [fr] visited the city in 1699, and in his memoirs he described it as located on the slope of a sandy hill.

[9] A large Islamic cemetery with numerous qubbas, erected in the 17th century, testify to the importance of Old Dongola also in postmedieval times.

The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw has conducted research at the site since 1964, with the support of the Sudanese National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums.

[1] Since 2017, the "UMMA: Urban Metamorphosis of the community of a Medieval African capital city" project (ERC Starting Grant), headed by Artur Obłuski, has been active in studies of the youngest layers of the site.

[12][13][14] In February 2023, the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology headed by Obłuski announced the discovery of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs inscribed on stone blocks and figural decorations as elements from a Pharaonic temple.

“This is completely uncommon for Byzantine Christian art, which generally does not show a lot of interaction or contact between mortals and immortals,” said team leader Artur Obłuski.