Kingdom of Kush rises from Kerma to the 25th Dynasty Black Pharaohs

September 10, 2026SudanGeneralShare

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Key facts

• More than 4,000 years ago, Kerma in northern Sudan was the centre of one of Africa's earliest urbanized societies.
• The Western Deffufa, a massive mudbrick structure at Kerma, was built from about the middle of the 3rd millennium BC and rises about 60 ft (18 m) above the surrounding ruins.
• From the 16th century BC, campaigns by pharaohs including Thutmose I and Thutmose III brought much of Nubia under Egyptian control by approximately the 15th century BC.
• Ramses II ordered the temples at Abu Simbel to be carved into sandstone cliffs in the 13th century BC; each has four seated colossi about 66 ft (20 m) high.
• Jebel Barkal became a sacred site dedicated to Amun under Egyptian rule and later the spiritual centre of the Kushite kingdom.
• In the 8th century BC, Kushite king Piye conquered Egypt and founded the 25th Dynasty, whose rulers became known as the Black Pharaohs.
• Taharqa, who ruled approximately 690-664 BC, commissioned a temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal and built the earliest pyramid at Nuri.
• The Meroitic writing system developed during the later Kushite period and remains only partially deciphered.
• In the mid-1st century BC, King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore built the Lion Temple at Naqa, dedicated to the lion-headed Kushite deity Apedemak.

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