Karima, The ancient Napata

Karima is a small town located in Northern State in Sudan on the right bank of the Nilealmost 400 km north of Khartoum on a loop of the Nile close to the famous archaeological site at the foot of Jebel Barkal, south of the 4th Cataract. The town is a small, dusty and calm village, where a big market takes place in the morning.

In around 780 b.C. King Alara unified upper Nubia. The worship of the God Amon was resurrected, centred in Napata at Jebel Barkal, provoking a renaissance of Egyptian culture in Kush. Alara’s successor, Kashta expanded into Lower Nubia and claimed the symbolic title of Pharaoh, setting the stage for the Nubian conquest of Egypt. He was followed by Piankhy who took control over Thebes and started the 25th Dynasty, also known as the Nubian or Black Pharaohs dynasty.

The main center of the Kushite Kingdom was in Napata and the big Temple of Amon at the base of the holy mountains Jebel Barkal was the center of the worshiping of the god. The Napatean archaeological sites are listed as World Heritage by Unesco.