Nubia

Nubia disappeared when its life-source, the Nile, was tamed. Nubia is the region to the south of Aswan, now submerged under the waters of Lake Nasser. It stretched as far as Khartoum, capital of present-day Sudan. The rocky First Cataract at Aswan marked the line between Egypt in the north and Nubia in the south. Like all regions bordering the nurturing Nile, life in Nubia followed the rhythm of floods and the depositing of silt which enabled crops to grow. From earliest times, there were those who sought to understand this mystery. Artefacts dating from the fifth millennium BC – ostrich eggs for example – testify to voyages undertaken to the south. Very shortly after the unification of ancient Egypt, Nubia found itself dominated by its larger neighbour to the north which sought to exploit the riches in gold that Nubia’s land offered. The name “Nubia” even comes from the ancient Egyptian word meaning precious metal. The province was also a source of leopard skins, incense and aromatic plants. In the Middle Kingdom, under the reign of Montuhotep II, the northern part was conquered but in the south the Kings of Kush still ruled. From their capital, Kerma, they resisted their powerful northern neighbours as best they could. The Nubians were vanquished and enslaved by the New Kingdom before being able to take advantage of anarchy prevailing in Thebes which they then seized. The Nubians pushed as far north as Memphis starting the rule of the black pharaohs which lasted until the Assyrian invasion from the north. The Kushites withdrew towards the south to Meroe and what remained of their civilisation.
Nubian territory was divided once more at a much later date when the British created the frontier between Egypt and Sudan in the nineteenth century. Some Egyptians retained a persistent longing for this lost region. With successive dams on the Nile at Aswan, the majority of inhabitants had to leave their villages under threat from the waters to head for those further north in the area of Kom Ombo where they tried to maintain their cultural identity at least in