The remains of the Kingdom of Kush
Photo of sudanese tourists visit Jebel Barkal to climb the small butte that has been considered sacred for thousands of years, especially when the Kingdom of Kush was at its height. Ruins of temples, one of which was dedicated to a god living atop the butte, are scattered around the base of the mountain. The legendary Kingdom of Kush, with its capitals in what is now northern Sudan, helped define the political and cultural landscape of northeastern Africa for more than a thousand years. Yet past archaeologists have offhandedly—and inaccurately—dismissed the Kushite kings as racially inferior, and their accomplishments as an inheritance of older Egyptian traditions. - Photograph by Nichole Sobecki