Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on the Nile

2012 American Publishers (PROSE) Awards winner for Best Archaeology & Anthropology Book

For most of the modern world, ancient Nubia seems an unknown and enigmatic land. Only a handful of archaeologists have studied its history or unearthed the Nubian cities, temples, and cemeteries that once dotted the landscape of southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Nubia’s remote setting in the midst of an inhospitable desert, with access by river blocked by impassable rapids, has lent it not only an air of mystery, but also isolated it from exploration. Over the past century, particularly during this last generation, scholars have begun to focus more attention on the fascinating cultures of ancient Nubia, ironically prompted by the construction of large dams that have flooded vast tracts of the ancient land.

This book attempts to document some of what has recently been discovered about ancient Nubia, with its remarkable history, architecture, and culture, and thereby to give us a picture of this rich, but unfamiliar, African legacy.

• The Kingdom of Kush: The Napatan and Meroitic Empires
• The Ancient Nubians: The History of One of the Oldest Civilizations in Africa
• The Kingdom of Kush: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Nubian Empire
• NUBIA: The Rise and Fall of African Empires
• Feeling the Spirit
• Rise of the Black Pharaohs
• Echo of the Spirit: A Photographer’s Journey
• Unseen: Unpublished Black History from the New York Times Photo Archives
• The Nubian Pharaohs: Black Kings on the Nile
• Ancient Nubia: Egypt's Rival in Africa