Egypt And The Kingdom Of Kush

in the first of a series of articles on ancient Nubia, Stanley M. Burstein outlines the history of Egypt’s southern neighbour and the relationship between the two countries throughout the pharaonic period.

- Stanley M. Burstein

The Nile Valley south of Egypt has been described as a “Corridor to Africa” for good reason. For almost five thousand years, it has formed a long narrow oasis stretching more than a thousand miles, slicing through the great desert that extends across the whole of North Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. Throughout the long history of Pharaonic Egypt, the Valley also provided the most convenient route for the spread of Egyptian influence south into Nubia, and the transportation north to Egypt of numerous African products – including slaves and pygmies, gold and ebony, animal skins and even live animals such as the baboons sacred to Thoth, god of learning – that were essential to Egyptian religion and culture.

Crushing “Vile Kush”

Not surprisingly, for most of antiquity the rulers of Egypt dreamed of gaining direct access to Nubia’s resources by securing control of the whole of the Nile corridor. The rugged geography of Nubia, however, made it difficult to achieve that goal. Only the strongest Egyptian dynasties could establish direct Egyptian rule over Nubia, and then only temporarily. Consequently, most pharaohs had to rely primarily on diplomacy and trade to acquire the African goods they desired. Geography also created the opportunity for the emergence of a series of states in Nubia during periods of Egyptian weakness, whose prosperity was based on the collection and transport to Egypt of African products.