Sudan-Gebel Barkal and the sites of the Napatan Region

  • Country: Sudan
  • Related Congress: 13th Congress, Dakar

Gebel Barkal and the sites of the Napatan region is a creative masterpiece highlighting the cultural tradition and belief system of the area. It is made up of five distinct components, Gebel Barkal, Kurri, Nuri, Sanam and Zuma spread over a distance of about 60km near the town of Karima in north-central Sudan. These sites are testimony to the Napatan, Meroitic and Kushite civilisations that flourished along the Nile between 900 B.C. and 600 A.D.
It features clusters of pyramids in the Nubian Desert and amongst other vestiges found are tombs, temples, palaces and complexes from the earliest period of the Kingdom of Kush, the Napatan era (900-270 B.C). They illustrate an architectural tradition that constituted the political, religious, social and artistic milieu of the Middle and Northern Nile valley for more than 2000 years. The Amun is the main temple at Gebel Barkal representing what was once a universal religion and the revival of Egyptian religious values. Kurru and Nuri are royal cemeteries and Sanam has a large unexcavted town and a Napatan cemetery. All pyramids are different and they function as commemorative monuments of the deceased. Tombs are decorated with either paintings or engravings and most of them have pyramidal superstructures particularly the ones in Nuri. The remains, with their art and inscriptions, are a manifestation of a great ancient culture that prevailed and flourished only in this region


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