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Luxor, such as the Karnak Temple
and the Valley of the Kings.
Today, what was once the
ancient land of Nubia is divided
between Egypt and the Republic of
the Sudan. In ancient times Nubia,
also known as Kush or the Southern
Lands, was the territory below the
First Cataract of the Nile, and during
the Greco-Roman period in Egypt
was part of Ethopia. Nubia was
important to Egypt as early as the
1st dynasty, and Egypt was to
plunder Nubia many times for her
bountiful natural resources.
Egypt, however, was never fully
in control of Nubia, and during
Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period
Nubia invaded Egypt itself, and
several Nubians became pharaohs of
Egypt’s 25th dynasty.
Nubian rule was established in
the northern part of Sudan in about
300 BC and the kingdom lasted for
900 years, being predominantly
Christian until the 14th century.
Today the modern inhabitants of
southern Egypt and northern Sudan
still refer to themselves as Nubians,
speaking the Nubian language as
well as Arabic. Nubia was the
homeland of Africa’s earliest black
culture, with a history that can be
traced from 3100 BC onward
through its monuments and
artifacts, also through the written
records of the Egyptians and the
Greeks and Romans who
subsequently came to rule in Egypt.
A dam was constructed at
Aswan, Egypt, in the 1960s, creating
the 500- mile-long Lake Nasser,
which permanently flooded ancient
temples and tombs as well as
hundreds of modern villages in
Sudan. While the dam was under
construction, hundreds of
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