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, one of Africa's earliest urban civilizations flourished around the city of Kerma in northern Sudan
• The Western Deffufa, an enormous mudbrick structure at Kerma, was constructed beginning around the middle of the 3rd millennium BC and rises about 60 ft (18 m) above the surrounding ruins
• Beginning in the 16th century BC, Egyptian pharaohs including Thutmose I and Thutmose III conquered Nubia and by approximately the 15th century BC controlled much of it
• Ramses II ordered two enormous temples carved into sandstone cliffs at Abu Simbel in the 13th century BC, with four seated statues each about 66 ft (20 m) high
• Jebel Barkal, identified with the god Amun, became a sacred site under Egyptian rule and later the spiritual center of the Kushite kingdom
• In the 8th century BC, Kushite king Piye conquered Egypt, founding the 25th Dynasty, whose rulers are known as the Black Pharaohs
• Taharqa, who ruled approximately 690-664 BC, commissioned the temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal and built the first pyramid at Nuri
• The Meroitic writing system developed during the later Kushite period remains insufficiently understood
• Around the beginning of the 1st century AD, King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore built the Lion Temple at Naqa, dedicated to the lion-headed Kushite deity Apedemak

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