___________________ Date _ _ _ _ Class _ _ _ __
Africa South of the Sahara
Geography and History Activity
Nubia
The Nile, the longest river in the world,
was a critical trade route in ancient times.
In the towns and villages along its banks,
Egyptian traders plied their wares, eventually emerging at the Nile's mouth on the
Mediterranean Sea. South of Egypt, however, another kingdom grew in response to
Nile River commerce. The Egyptians knew
this kingdom as Kush, located in the mysterious region called Nubia (what is today
southern Egypt and the Sudan).
Treacherous Water
The Nile that flowed through Nubia
was not the easy water highway enjoyed
by Egyptians. The "middle Nile" could
be very narrow, and its current ran very
rapidly in places called "cataracts." There
were six numbered cataracts on the Nile
between the Egyptian city of Aswan
(the First Cataract) and Shabaluka Gorge
(the Sixth Cataract), located north of Khartoum, Sudan. The treacherous whitewater
of these cataracts isolated Nubia from
the outside world for centuries. After the
Nubians mastered navigation of the cataracts, however, they began trading with
their neighbors to the north. Eventually,
Nubia became an important trading link
between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest
of the world.
Rich Kingdom
Nubia was a land of great natural
wealth-rich in gold mines and iron ore.
Egypt relied on Nubia for gold to make
coins and ornamentation, and for iron to
make tools and weaponry. In addition, the
Egyptians traded for other valued items
the Nubians obtained from the African
interior-leather, ebony, elephants and
ivory, spices, incense, and ostrich feathers.
Nubia also provided Egypt with slaves
and the stone needed to build temples and
pyramids for Egyptian royalty. Although
warfare occurred between the two lands,
the Egyptians depended on the kingdom
of Kush for resources, and many of
Egypt's archaeological treasures were
of Nubian origin.
After a major military defeat around
600 B.C., the Nubians moved the capital of
the Kush kingdom farther south along the
Nile, to Meroe. Meroe's location made it a
hub of trade along the Nile as well as for
caravans crossing the desert from northern
Africa to the Red Sea and Arabia.
Decline
The Nubian iron industry eventually
used up huge quantities of wood, and its
forests were being overtaken by desert.
Overgrazing and poor farming practices
caused the land to lose its fertility. After
a series of skirmishes with Roman-ruled
Egypt in the second century A.D., the
Nubian economy declined.
The land called Nubia no longer exists.
In 1971 the Aswan High Dam was built in
Egypt, and much of the Nubian portion of
the Nile was flooded to form Lake Nasser.
Archaeologists were able to excavate and
move only a few dozen monuments to
higher ground before most of the territory
of this once-powerful African kingdom
was submerged forever.
II
Name ___________________ Date _ _ _ _ Class _ _ _ __
Geography and History Activity
continued
SAHARA
SUDAN
KEY
------- disputed border
'+!i
Applying Geography to History
Directions: Read the information about
4. Naming What natural resources did
Nubia have?
the Nubians and examine the map. Then
answer the questions below.
1. Locating Where was the kingdom of
Kush located?
5. Listing What trade goods from Africa's
interior were important. to the Egyptians?
2. Defining What is a cataract? How
many cataracts were located along
the Nile?
6. Assessing What are two reasons the
3. Explaining How did the existence of
7. Mapping Activity On an outline map
cataracts affect the history of Nubia?
12
kingdom of Kush declined in power?
of Africa, draw the Nile River and label
its source, its delta, the two rivers that
combine to form the main river, the
direction in which it flows, and the
Aswan High Dam and Lake Nasser.