The land of Nubia. History and Culture

The term ‘Nubia’ defines a geographic region that is located in the northeast corner of Africa, encompassing the southern end of Egypt and the northern half of the modern country of Sudan. Straddling the Nile River, it is sometimes referred to in two parts, according to the direction the river flows, Lower Nubia in the north and Upper Nubia in the south. Stretching along the winding course of the Nile River for nearly a thousand kilometers, the area is also sometimes called ‘the Middle Nile.’

The area is further divided by a series of rapids, called cataracts, which served as boundaries for different regions within Nubia. The First Cataract is at Aswan, where Nubia begins, and the last one, the Sixth, is north of the modern city of Khartoum.

Figure. The Second Cataract as it appeared in the middle of the nineteenth century

The cataracts were formed when the river ran into outcrops of granite, the hard rock that underlies the lands of Egypt and Sudan. Above this rock, the geology of Egypt and Sudan are very different, and that was to have a profound effect on their respective histories. In the distant past, during the Eocene Period, fifty-five to thirty- nine million years ago, most of Egypt lay under the sea, and deposits of shell, coral, and the remains of other marine life eventually formed a thick bed of limestone.

This rock was easily cut into by the river Nile, which formed a wide bed and vast, fertile flood plain that could support a large population and provide great agricultural wealth. At the border of Nubia, however, this floodplain all but disappears, and the soft, orange sandstone that stretches southward confines the river as it runs through vast barren desert.

To the east of the Nubian Nile, the terrain is marked by granite and other igneous rocks, including diorite, that form an even more forbidding and desolate landscape, but hold the key to Nubia’s importance: gold.

Scholars still debate where the name Nubia came from, but it is tempting to see its origin in the ancient Egyptian word for gold, nub, which would be fitting, since Nubia had the ancient world’s richest supply of gold. Other names the Egyptians had for Nubia included ‘Ta-Sety’— ‘The Land of the Bow’—undoubtedly because the Nubians, rather than farming, relied on hunting for food and became very skilled with the bow and arrow. Indeed, depictions of Nubian archers are found not only in Egyptian art, but show their fame reached even into the Mediterranean world.

The Classical historians often called the area south of Egypt ‘Ethiopia,’ incorporating not only the modern country of Ethiopia, but Nubia and the lands beyond. The ancient Egyptian terms for their southern neighbors were similarly vague, and even now scholars debate to which regions their designations refer.

Parts of what is known as Lower Nubia were called Wawat by the ancient Egyptians, with outlying areas called Irtjet, Setju, and Yam, although their exact location is much debated. For Upper Nubia, the most common term was Kush, which is often accompanied by the words “vile” or “wretched” to denote the pharaohs’ scorn for their principal rival in Africa. ‘The Kingdom of Kush’ was used twice by the ancient Egyptians to refer to two powerful kingdoms that rose up in Nubia to challenge their control of the Nile.

It is yet unclear how, if at all, these two great Kushite civilizations separated by a millennium were related, but both illustrate the tremendous capacity the Nubians had in overcoming the difficulties of their remote and inhospitable land to become accomplished and powerful societies.