Napata

Napata, the ancient name of a city in Upper Nubia, northern Sudan, about 400 km north of the present capital Khartoum.

Foundation

Napata was about 1450 BC by the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III. founded when he expanded his empire in this region. Belonging to the City of Mount Barkal he regarded as the southern boundary of the New Kingdom. Other pharaohs of the New Kingdom, such as Ramses II are witnessed here as well and have built here. In the 25th Dynasty, the Temple additional extensions were carried out, which main temple is named on the B 500 concentrated. Around 1000 BC a principality with Napata was the center. From about 750 Napata was the capital of the independent kingdom of Kush. The work was continued in the following years under Aspelta and Anlamani. But Napata and the local temple at Barkal remained the religious center of the country. To the turning point finally unfolded here Natakamani other construction activities.

The ruins

To the City Napata include ruins at several locations:

• The Holy Mount Barkal was already under Thutmose III. worshiped.
• The ruins of a temple district are on the east side of the mountain to the temple of Amun from Mount Barkal as the largest Egyptian temple in Nubia. Its origin goes back to Tuthmosis III. back.
• The pyramids of Mount Barkal on the western side of the Barkal were partially built at a time when the capital of the Kushite Empire was already moved to Meroe.
• Another temple of Amun was five kilometers south of the Barkal on the other side of the Nile in Sanam. Here, the residential city of Napata should have been located.
• The town of Napata, the ten kilometers south located on the western side of the Nile Great Pyramids of al - Kurru still can be counted.

The ruins at Jebel Barkal include at least 13 temples and three palaces. These were found by European explorers in 1820. The largest temple, like that of the god Amun, are now seen as holy nor by the local population.

Excavations

The temples were excavated 1916-1920 mainly by George A. Reisner. Only a portion of its results have been published. Currently held Italian excavations here.

The pyramids of Mount Barkal and the local Temple of Amun, the archaeological sites Sanam, the Pyramids of Nuri al - Kurru and from, as well as the burial ground in Zuma received in 2003 by the UNESCO World Heritage status.