[1] It is located between the 3rd and 4th cataracts of the Nile about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the river in what is now Northern state, Sudan.

However, in the mid-4th century the 20th king, whose name is unknown, chose to have his tomb, as well as that of his queen, built at El Kurru.

[1] Reisner thought that the earliest tomb, Tum.1, dated back to the time of Pharaoh Sheshonq I of Ancient Egypt (c. 860 BC) and predates the Kingdom of Napata by some 200 years.

At the present, some scholars (Hakem, Torok) think the early cemetery stretches back to the Ramesside period and date the earliest burials to the end of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (c. 1070 BC).

standing for tumulus), and Ku.19 are all Nubian style tumuli that consist of a rock-cut pit covered by a circular mound of gravel, pebbles, and rubble.

Tum.6 and Ku.19 both have circular enclosure walls, which are sturdier than the rubble piles that topped the previous tombs, and had offering chapels.

[5] In the medieval period, when the region was part of the Christian kingdom of Makuria, El-Kurru constituted a walled settlement functioning until about 1200.

1, including monograms, Christian symbols and, most remarkably, a multitude of boats, perhaps commemorating "some kind of river procession.

"[8] Tombs dating to the time of the Kingdom of Napata (ca 750 – 650 BC) and later Some 120 metres (390 ft) to the north-west of pyramids K.51–K.55, four rows of graves were found which contained horse burials (Ku.201-224).