Batn-El-Hajar or Belly of Stones is a reach of approximately 160 km in length stretching from the Dal Cataract of the Nile downriver to the now under Lake Nubia submerged Second Cataract in present-day Sudan. [1]
Batn-El-Hajar is a barren and granite-rich landscape limiting arable soil and, thus, sparsely inhabited. It was the traditional border between Upper Nubia and Lower Nubia. In this area are a number of important A-Group [2] and Meroitics [3] archeological sites. [4]
Nubians are a Nilo-Saharan speaking ethnic group indigenous to the region which is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt. They originate from the early inhabitants of the central Nile valley, believed to be one of the earliest cradles of civilization. In the southern valley of Egypt, Nubians differ culturally and ethnically from Egyptians, although they intermarried with members of other ethnic groups, especially Arabs. They speak Nubian languages as a mother tongue, part of the Northern Eastern Sudanic languages, and Arabic as a second language.
Meroë was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum. Near the site is a group of villages called Bagrawiyah. This city was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush for several centuries from around 590 BC, until its collapse in the 4th century AD. The Kushitic Kingdom of Meroë gave its name to the "Island of Meroë", which was the modern region of Butana, a region bounded by the Nile, the Atbarah and the Blue Nile.
The Nubian pyramids were built by the rulers of the ancient Kushite kingdoms. The area of the Nile valley known as Nubia, which lies in northern present-day Sudan, was the site of three Kushite kingdoms during antiquity. The capital of the first was at Kerma. The second was centered on Napata. The third kingdom was centered on Meroë. The pyramids are built of granite and sandstone.
Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, and all its modern population, were relocated as part of the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia; Qasr Ibrim is the only major archaeological site which was neither relocated nor submerged. The intensive archaeological work conducted prior to the flooding means that the history of the area is much better known than that of Upper Nubia. According to David Wengrow, the A-Group Nubian polity of the late 4th millenninum BCE is poorly understood since most of the archaeological remains are submerged underneath Lake Nasser.
The Kingdom of Kerma or the Kerma culture was an early civilization centered in Kerma, Sudan. It flourished from around 2500 BC to 1500 BC in ancient Nubia. The Kerma culture was based in the southern part of Nubia, or "Upper Nubia", and later extended its reach northward into Lower Nubia and the border of Egypt. The polity seems to have been one of a number of Nile Valley states during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. In the Kingdom of Kerma's latest phase, lasting from about 1700 to 1500 BC, it absorbed the Sudanese kingdom of Sai and became a sizable, populous empire rivaling Egypt. Around 1500 BC, it was absorbed into the New Kingdom of Egypt, but rebellions continued for centuries. By the eleventh century BC, the more-Egyptianized Kingdom of Kush emerged, possibly from Kerma, and regained the region's independence from Egypt.
Soba is an archaeological site and former town in what is now central Sudan. Three kingdoms existed in medieval Nubia: Nobadia with the capital in Faras, Makuria with the capital in Dongola, and Alodia (Alwa) with the capital in Soba. The latter used to be the capital of the medieval Nubian kingdom of Alodia from the sixth century until around 1500. E. A. Wallis Budge identified it with a group of ruins on the Blue Nile 19 kilometres (12 mi) from Khartoum, where there are remains of a Meroitic temple that had been converted into a Christian church.
The National Museum of Sudan or Sudan National Museum, abbreviated SNM, is a two-story building, constructed in 1955 and established as national museum in 1971.
The region of Semna is 15 miles south of Wadi Halfa and is situated where rocks cross the Nile narrowing its flow—the Semna Cataract.
Nubia is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles, or more strictly, Al Dabbah. It was the seat of one of the earliest civilizations of ancient Africa, the Kerma culture, which lasted from around 2500 BC until its conquest by the New Kingdom of Egypt under Pharaoh Thutmose I around 1500 BC, whose heirs ruled most of Nubia for the next 400 years. Nubia was home to several empires, most prominently the Kingdom of Kush, which conquered Egypt in the eighth century BC during the reign of Piye and ruled the country as its 25th Dynasty.
The Kingdom of Kush, also known as the Kushite Empire, or simply Kush, was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, centered along the Nile Valley in what is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt.
Amara, usually distinguished as Amara East and Amara West, is the modern name of an ancient Egyptian city in Nubia, in what today is Sudan. Amara West is located on the west side of the Nile, eastern Amara, on the eastern side of the Nile. The towns lie north of the 3rd Cataract of the Nile, near the modern-day town of Abri.
Kulb is a village on the Nile in northern Sudan. It has been inhabited since the time of the Christian kingdom of Makuria. Until the 15th century, it was in a remote area, serving as a retreat for Christians in Nubia. The domed Kulubnarti church, 21-S-1, is the only known example of a Christian center plan building in Lower Nubia.
Kulubnarti is a 1 mile (1.6 km) long island in northern Sudan. Located on the Nile, around 100 miles (160 km) south of the Egyptian border, it is part of the village of Kulb.
The Kulubnarti church is an archaeological site and former Christian church located on the island of Kulubnarti, in the village of Kulb in northern Sudan. The island is situated between the 2nd and 3rd cataracts of the Nile, about 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of Wadi Halfa, in the Batn-El-Hajar region.
El-Hobagi is an archaeological site in Sudan. It lies approximately 65 kilometres (40 mi) southwest of Meroe on the western side of the Nile, near the sixth cataract.
Kumma or Semna East is an archaeological site in Sudan. Established in the mid-12th Dynasty of Egypt, it served as a fortress of ancient Egypt in Nubia. Along with Semna, Kumma was built by the Pharaoh Sesostris III. The forts protected the border between ancient Egypt and the southern areas.
Meinarti was an island with a Nubian village in northern Sudan. Situated in the Nile, Meinarti was just north of the 2nd Cataract, a few kilometers upstream of the Sudanese border town of Wadi Halfa. On the island was an artificial mount 175m long and 12.5m high, consisting of stratified archaeological remains. When excavated it proved to contain 18 recognizable levels, the result of six separate and distinct phases of occupation. Each phase was followed by a period of abandonment and then a complete rebuilding. Structural remains at all phases were entirely of mud brick. Meinarti was excavated by William Yewdale Adams from 1962 to 1964, prior to perishing in the 1960s with the rising of Lake Nubia due to the Aswan Dam.
The Sedeinga pyramids are a group of at least 80 small pyramids near Sedeinga, Sudan, built ca. 1 BCE. They were discovered between 2009 and 2012 and date to the time of the Kingdom of Kush, an ancient kingdom in Nubia. They range in size from about 6.7 metres (22 ft) to 75 centimetres (30 in) wide.
Korosko was a settlement on the Nile River in Egyptian Nubia. It was located 118 miles (190 km) south of Aswan and served as the point of departure for caravans avoiding the Dongola bend in the river by striking out directly across the desert to Abu Hamad and thereby bypassing the second, third and fourth cataracts of the Nile. The "Korosko route" or "Korosoko road" was in use during the period of the New Kingdom, when Pharaohs Thutmose I and Thutmose III marked it with boundary stelae. During the Meroitic period it was the main connection between the Kingdom of Kush and the Mediterranean world.
The Sudan Archaeological Research Society is a registered British charity based in London, UK. It was founded in 1991 to study the history and culture of Sudan and expanded its remit in 2011 to include the newly independent South Sudan. The society has surveyed and excavated numerous archaeological sites across Sudan, and disseminates its research through publications and events.