Black Pharaohs

Looking at maps of Ancient Egypt, one might think that south of the first cataract of the Nile the world, or at least the culture, had ended. The Egyptians themselves tried to create this impression. Yet there were flourishing empires there, whose kings also ruled Egypt for a time as "Black Pharaohs." Francis Breyer describes the history of Nubian cultures from the first commonwealths in the 5th millennium BC, through the Cushite empires with their metropolises of Kerma, Napata and Meroë, to the Christian and Islamic kingdoms and sultanates in the Middle Ages. He follows the archaeological traces of gods' beliefs and society and explains what the dark-skinned dignitaries in Egyptian tombs are all about. His vividly written book makes impressively clear what we gain when we finally look beyond the canonical high cultures.