Napata

Napata was the southernmost permanent settlement in the New Kingdom of Egypt (16th–11th centuries BC) and home to Jebel Barkal, the main Kushite cult centre of Amun.

Because Egyptians believed that the inundation of the Nile equated Creation, Napata's location as the southernmost point in the empire led it to become an important religious centre and settlement.

[5] In the Early 18th Dynasty, Jebel Barkal, a lone sandstone butte, became a focus of Egyptian cultic religion as the residence of their state god Amun of Karnak.

In the shadow of Jebel Barkal, a religious centre called Karnak was erected and the settlement that followed in the area became known as Napata.

The fragmentation of power in Egypt allowed the Kushites to regain autonomy as they became increasingly estranged from Theban clergy.

A stela erected in Napata in the eighth century presents a Kushite king (whose title has been hammered out) as the only ruler legitimated by the god Amun, appointing the kinglets and Libyan chiefs who shared Egypt at that time and derived their legitimacy from the generals' discretion.

His policy was pursued by his successors Piye, and Shabaka (721–707 BC), who eventually brought the whole Nile Valley under Kushitic control in the second year of his reign.

[2] They are depicted in art as having worn a particular type of skull-cap crown reminiscent of the shape of Jebel Barkal, which was intended to show how they derived their power from that “Pure Mountain”.

Pharaohs, such as Taharqa, built or restored temples and monuments throughout the Nile, including at Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, Jebel Barkal, and elsewhere.

[10] Pharaoh Taharqa's reign and that of his eventual successor, his cousin Tantamani, were filled with constant conflict with the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

The island of Meroë, the peninsula formed by the Nile and the Atbarah River, was an area rich in iron, which was becoming an essential source of wealth.

In 23 BC, the Governor of Roman Egypt Gaius Petronius invaded Kush with 10,000 men after an initial attack by the queen of Meroë, reaching Napata.

[17] The earliest known standing structure at Jebel Barkal is the Enthronement Pavilion, which has been dated to the reign of Thutmose IV.

Napata is the setting for a large portion of the novel, The Last Camel Died At Noon by Egyptologist, Barbara Mertz under the nom de plume of Elizabeth Peters.