On March 10, 1964, Vatican City issued four stamps as part of the UNESCO campaign to save historic monuments in Nubia, a region located along the Nile River in both Sudan and Egypt. Rising waters of the Aswan Dam endangered the monuments. The Philatelic Campaign for the Preservation of the Monuments of Nubia commenced in December 1961. Forty countries participated, issuing more than 130 stamps. UNESCO received a portion of the stamps to sell, and the funds raised ($65,000) went into the trust fund for the work.
The design on the 10-lire and 70-lire stamps depicts a niche in the pharaoh's temple at Ouadi es Seboua that shelters a painting of St. Peter, which also shows Rhamases II and the boat sacred to the sun. The design on the 20-lire and 200-lire stamps shows the Roman-Egyptian portico of fourteen pillars built by Emperor Trajan, with the waters of the Nile already up to its base.
The format is horizontal, 31 x 25 mm, printed by photogravure on paper watermarked with the papal Crossed Keys. The 10-lire and 70-lire stamps have a perforation 14 x 14, and the 20-lire and 200-lire have a 13 1/2 x 13 1/4 perforation. The stamps were valid for postage until December 31, 1964.
"Save the Monuments of Nubia Campaign." Vatican Notes 16, no 3 (November-December 1967): 9-10.
"Save the Monuments of Nubia Campaign." Vatican Notes 12, no. 6 (May-June 1964):4.
