Nubia

THE 'FOREMOST EGYPTOLOGIST OF HIS TIME', TOBY WILKINSON, UNVEILS THE HIDDEN LEGACY OF THE NUBIANS

The Nubians created the largest African state ever to exist, stretching for more than 1500 miles, north to south. Nubian civilisation began before the pharaohs ruled in Egypt, and it was still there in the Christian era, long after the pharaohs had disappeared. For centuries Nubia rivalled Egypt for control of north-east Africa, trading across vast areas, and – under a warrior queen named Amanirenas – resisted the Romans where Cleopatra could not. Yet the Nubians' glittering civilisation, built on the gold that gave their land 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 history of the Nubians and the Kingdom of Kush. 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 the era 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 the first distinctively African civilisation – a culture that endured for millennia.