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.
Jebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal is a mesa or large rock outcrop located 400 km north of Khartoum, next to Karima in Northern State in Sudan, on the Nile River, in the region that is sometimes called Nubia. The jebel is 104 m tall, has a flat top, and came to have religious significance for both ancient Kush and ancient Egyptian occupiers. In 2003, the mountain, together with the extensive archaeological site at its base, were named as the center of a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The Jebel Barkal area houses the Jebel Barkal Museum.
Napata was a city of ancient Kush at the fourth cataract of the Nile founded by the Egyptian Amun cult for Egyptian pilgrims given by its, as suggested, Egyptian name. It is located approximately 1.5 kilometers from the east side of the river at the site of modern Karima, Sudan.
Amanishakheto was a queen regnant (kandake) of Kush who reigned in the early 1st century AD. In Meroitic hieroglyphs her name is written "Amanikasheto". In Meroitic cursive she is referred to as Amaniskheto qor kd(ke) which means Amanishakheto, Qore and Kandake.
Teqorideamani was the King of Kush who was ruling in AD 253. His reign may be dated from 245/246 to sometime after 265/266. His throne name, attested in Egyptian hieroglyphics, was Ḫpr-kꜣ-Rꜥ, meaning "Ra is one whose ka came into being". Rendered in Meroitic, it is Natakamani or Ariteñyesebokhe. His given name, Teqorideamani, is attested in Meroitic hieroglyphs in his tomb inscription.
Shanakdakhete, also spelled Shanakdakheto or Sanakadakhete, was a queen regnant of the Kingdom of Kush, ruling from Meroë in the early first century AD. Shanakdakhete is poorly attested, though is known to have constructed a temple in Naqa.
Kandake, kadake or kentake, often Latinised as Candace, was the Meroitic term for the sister of the king of Kush who, due to the matrilineal succession, would bear the next heir, making her a queen mother. She had her own court, probably acted as a landholder and held a prominent secular role as regent. Contemporary Greek and Roman sources treated it, incorrectly, as a name. The name Candace is derived from the way the word is used in the New Testament.
Amanirenas, was queen regnant of the Kingdom of Kush from the end of the 1st century BCE to beginning of the 1st century CE. She is known for invading Roman occupied Egypt and successfully negotiating the end of Roman retaliation, retaining Kushite independence.
Nubia is a region along the Nile river encompassing the confluence of the Blue and White Niles, and the area between the first cataract of the Nile 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.
Naqa or Naga'a is a ruined ancient city of the Kushitic Kingdom of Meroë in modern-day Sudan. The ancient city lies about 170 km (110 mi) north-east of Khartoum, and about 50 km (31 mi) east of the Nile River located at approximately MGRS 36QWC290629877. Here smaller wadis meet the Wadi Awateib coming from the center of the Butana plateau region, and further north at Wad ban Naqa from where it joins the Nile. Naqa was only a camel or donkey's journey from the Nile, and could serve as a trading station on the way to the east; thus it had strategic importance.
Arqamani was a Kushite King of Meroë dating from the late 3rd to early 2nd century BCE.
Talakhamani was a Kushite King of Meroë during the second half of the 5th century BCE. No prenomen is known, and his nomen is Talakhamani. He may have been a son of Nasakhma and a younger brother of Malewiebamani. It is also possible Talakhamani is a son of Malewiebamani.
The Triakontaschoinos, Latinized as Triacontaschoenus, was a geographical and administrative term used in the Greco-Roman world for the part of Lower Nubia between the First and Second Cataracts of the Nile, which formed a buffer zone between Egypt and later Rome on the one hand and Meroë on the other hand. The northern part of this area, stretching from the First Cataract south to Maharraqa, was known as the Dodekaschoinos or Dodecaschoenus. In the Ptolemaic and Roman periods the Dodekaschoinos was often annexed to Egypt or controlled from it, and the rest of the Triakontaschoinos sometimes was as well.
Amesemi is a Kushite protective goddess and wife of Apedemak, the lion-god. She was represented with a crown shaped as a falcon, or with a crescent moon on her head on top of which a falcon was standing. The clothing that Amesemi is seen wearing is a robe that is made from cloth and is worn over her undergarments. She is often seen wearing a short necklace with large beads. She is also depicted holding a second set of hands with her.
Maloqorebar was an ancient Kushite prince.
Yesebokheamani was the king (qore) of Kush in the late 3rd or early 4th century AD. He seems to have been the king who took control of the Dodecaschoenus after the Roman withdrawal in 298. This enabled him to make a personal visit to the temple of Isis at Philae.
The Wayekiye family was a Nubian priestly family that was influential in the Dodekaschoinos between Upper Egypt and Nubia in the second and third centuries CE, named after two of its members. They are attested to by mostly Demotic temple inscriptions. Although the Roman government directed the taxes of the Dodekaschoinos to the Egyptian temple cults of Isis of Philae and Thoth of Dakka, most of the population was not ethnically Egyptian but Nubian, as were local elites like the Wayekiye. The family eventually came to serve the Nubian Kushite court of Meroë and may have acted as a "vehicle for the penetration of Meroitic royal authority" into the area, culminating in Kush's annexation of the area in the third century.
The reign of Amanitore was considered one of the most prosperous times of the Meroitic period. She ruled alongside Natakamani, who was either her husband or her son. The success of the two rulers is evident through their work towards the building, restoration, and expansion of many temples throughout Nubia. The temples that can be accredited to the work of the two include: the Temple of Apedemak, the Amun temple B500 at Napata, the Amun temple at Meroe, the Amun Temples of Naqa and Amara, the Isis temple at Wad ben Naqa, and the Meroitic palace B1500 at Napata.
