Nubia

The ancient Nubians built the largest African state ever to exist, challenging the pharaohs for control of northeast Africa, trading with the Greek world, and—under a warrior queen named Amanirenas—defeating the Romans where Cleopatra could not. Yet their glittering civilization, built on the gold that gave Nubia its name, is now all but forgotten, eclipsed in the public imagination by the towering presence of their ancient enemy, Egypt. Nubia is the engrossing account of the ancient Nubians and the Kingdom of Kush they created. Historian Toby Wilkinson brings to light their brilliant world in all its glory and complexity, from the times when they were a subject people in their own land to those when they ruled over Egypt as pharaohs themselves. Vividly portraying their innovations and achievements in art, architecture, religion, and politics, Wilkinson shows how the Nubians developed a distinctive, and distinctively African, culture that endured for millennia. A captivating and revelatory portrait of ancient Africa, this is the definitive history of the greatest Black civilization the world has ever known.