Nubia

Nubia ( NEW-bee-uh; Nobiin: Nⲟ̅ⲩ̅ⲃⲁ; Arabic: النُوبَة, romanized: an-Nūba) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (near Khartoum in central Sudan) and the First Cataract (south of Aswan in southern Egypt). It was the seat of one of the earliest civilizations of ancient Africa, the Kerma culture, which lasted from around 2500 BC until its conquest by the New Kingdom of Egypt under Pharaoh Thutmose I around 1500 BC. Egyptian heirs subsequently ruled much of Nubia for the next four centuries.

Nubia was home to several empires, most prominently the Kingdom of Kush. This kingdom conquered Egypt in the eighth century BC under Piye, ruling as its 25th Dynasty. From the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD, northern Nubia was invaded and annexed by Egypt, then under the rule of the Greeks and later the Romans; this territory was known in the Greco-Roman world as the Dodekaschoinos.

The collapse of Kush in the 4th century AD was preceded by an invasion from the Kingdom of Aksum and followed by the rise of three Christian kingdoms: Nobatia, Makuria, and Alodia. Makuria and Alodia endured for roughly a millennium. Their eventual decline precipitated both the partition of Nubia in the 16th century—into a northern half conquered by the Ottoman Empire and a southern half by the Sennar sultanate—and a rapid process of Islamization and partial Arabization of the Nubian people. Nubia was later reunited under the Khedivate of Egypt in the 19th century. Today, the region is divided between Egypt and Sudan.