Napata

An ancient city, situated on the W bank of the Nile in what is now the Sudan. It was the capital of the kingdom of Cush c.750–590 BC. Although political dominance passed to Meroe in that year, Napata remained the religious capital.

Napata was a city on the west bank of the Nile river, some 400 km north of Khartoum, the present capital of Sudan. Some 300 years later, Napata became the capital of the independent kingdom of Kush which ruled Egypt during the 25th Dynasty from c.731 BC until 656 BC.

In 22 BC the Roman governor of Egypt, Gaius Petronius Pontius Nigrinus, marched along the Nile with legions XXII Deiotariana and III Cyrenaica and destroyed Napata.

Today, Napata's ruins include at least 13 temples and 3 palaces, that were for the first described by European explorers in the 1820’s.

For these reasons, the mountain, together with the historical cities of Meroe and Napata, were considered by UNESCO, in 2003, World Heritage Sites.