Top image: Warriors of the Kingdom of Kush.

The Kushite takeover of Egypt is a story that is often overlooked in history books. Most of what we know about the kingdom of Kush comes from the perspective of the Egyptians, who wrote everything down. Through excavations and research, we are now beginning to understand the long-interwoven history of Kush and Egypt. Kush was a powerful empire that controlled trade routes from the south up to Egypt. Egypt relied on Kushite gold for their elaborate burials and fierce Kushite warriors to supplement Egyptian armies. However, the Kushites gained so much power that the Egyptians saw them as a threat and invaded their neighbors to the south. For the next 400 years, Kush was controlled by Egypt, but eventually, the Kushites threw off the shackles of their Egyptian colonizers and began to rise in power.

The Kushites took over a place full of spiritual significance to the Egyptians, Jebel Barkal , or sacred mountain, and from there, they were able to control an increasingly extensive territory. Ultimately, that rise of power led to the Kushites being able to conquer all of Egypt. For nearly a hundred years, a succession of five Kushite kings ruled all of Egypt, stretching from modern-day Khartoum to the Mediterranean.