The Kingdom of Kush

Kush, which lay to the south of Egypt upstream of the first Nile cataract, flourished for a thousand years. Medieval Muslim geographers called the area "Bilad as-Sudan" (Land of the Blacks). During the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., its rulers controlled Egypt as Pharaohs of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. Extensive remains of pyramids, settlements, and temples can still be seen, yet the early development and much of the later history of the kingdom is obscure. Nonetheless, the Kushites have always been overshadowed in the popular imagination and in academic studies by their more famous northern neighbor.
The Kingdom of Kush illuminates all that is known about this fascinating people and their history and makes significant scholarly contributions to an ongoing debate concerning Black Africa's role in the cultural development of ancient Egypt.

Derek A. Welsby is currently an Assistant Keeper in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities, British Museum, with special responsibility for the Sudanese collection.