A glance at a makeshift drawing from the cathedral in Faras suggests that it may depict the ground plan of a church. Nevertheless, the naive appearance of the sketch and an almost complete lack of sufficient parallels from either Nubia or the Eastern Mediterranean make a proper examination of this assumption unfeasible. A reassessment of the architectural drawing from the cathedral, however, draws a wider perspective for a discussion of originality in Nubian architecture. The following paper presents the rather modest evidence available for a study of the nature of Nubian architecture from the point of view of its builders.