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 royal court left Dongola in 1364. Under the Funj, Old Dongola became the capital of the Northern provinces. The French traveller visited the city in 1699, and in his memoirs he described it as located on the slope of a sandy hill. His description of Old Dongola continues: The houses are ill built, and the streets half deserted and fill'd with heaps of sand, occasion'd by floods from the mountains. The castle is in the very center of the town. It is large and spacious, but the fortifications are inconsiderable. It keeps in awe the Arabians, who are masters of the open country. Intensive trade relations with the Far East, as well as Europe, continued in this period. Islamic cemetery A large Islamic cemetery with numerous qubbas, erected in the 17th century, testify to the importance of Old Dongola also in postmedieval times. Polish archaeological expedition to Old Dongola Polish archaeological and conservation works in Dongola were initiated by Kazimierz Michałowski. 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. The first head of the expedition was architect Antoni Ostrasz. Later, Stefan Jakobielski and Włodzimierz Godlewski directed the works for 60 years. Since 2017, the "UMMA: Urban Metamorphosis of the community of a Medieval African capital city" project (ERC Starting Grant), headed by Artur Obłuski, studies the youngest layers of the site. In May 2021, archaeologists led by Prof. Artur Obłuski have announced the discovery of a new church's apse decorated with paintings describing two rows of colossal figures, as well as an attached wall and the nearby dome of a large tomb in Old Dongola, which might be a cathedral and the largest known church from medieval Nubia. Artur Obłuski reported: "The apse is about 9 meters deep. This means that the eastern part of the building has been preserved to the impressive height of three floors of a typical block of flats. And this gives a great chance that there are more paintings and inscriptions under our feet, just like in Faras". Notes See also 2021 in archaeology References Godlewski, W. Archaeological and architectural evidence of social change in 13th–17th century