Jebel Barkal, also known as Jabal Barkal in Arabic, is a large, flat-topped rock formation located 400 kilometers north of Khartoum, near Karima in Sudan's Northern State. It sits along the Nile River in a region sometimes called Nubia. The formation is 104 meters tall and held religious importance for both ancient Kush and ancient Egyptian people. In 2003, Jebel Barkal and the archaeological site at its base, known as ancient Napata, were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area includes the Jebel Barkal Museum.

History

The earliest people who lived at Jebel Barkal were part of the Kerma culture, also called Kush. Evidence of their presence is found only in broken pieces of pottery. The Kerma people seemed to worship a stone platform called the mensa in a way that involved believing in spirits. This tradition was later passed on to the New Kingdom Egyptians and later groups like the Napatans and Meroites.

Around 1450 BCE, the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III took control of Jebel Barkal and built a fortified settlement there, called menenu in Egyptian. This area became known as Napata, and the Egyptian presence at Jebel Barkal lasted most of the New Kingdom period. The Egyptians built a group of temples, with a main temple dedicated to Amun of Napata, a local version of the Egyptian god Amun, who had a ram’s head. After the New Kingdom ended in 1169 BCE, little construction happened at Jebel Barkal. No other signs of the Egyptian settlement have been found there.

Jebel Barkal became the capital of the Kingdom of Kush when Kush regained power after 800 BCE, during the Napatan Dynasty. Kings from Kush, including Kashta, Piankhy (or Piye), and Taharqa, who later ruled Egypt as the 25th Dynasty, built, repaired, and expanded large structures at the site.

When the Assyrians conquered Egypt in the mid-7th century BCE, the Kushites were driven out but continued to rule Kush from Jebel Barkal and the city of Meroë. During this time, palaces and temples at Jebel Barkal were regularly repaired from the 7th century BCE until the early 3rd century BCE. Most royal tombs for Kushite kings and queens during this period were built at Nuri, a site 9 kilometers northeast of Jebel Barkal.

In 270 BCE, the location of royal tombs was moved to Meroë, marking the start of the Meroitic period of Kush. Jebel Barkal remained an important city during this time, with new palaces and temples built, and older ones repaired. Between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, eight royal tombs were built at Jebel Barkal instead of Meroë, though the reasons for this are unclear.

After the Kingdom of Kush fell in the 4th century CE, Jebel Barkal was still occupied during the medieval Christian period in Nubia. Evidence of this includes buildings, tombs, and inscriptions found at the site.

Temples

The ruins near Jebel Barkal include at least 13 temples that were built, fixed, and expanded over more than 1,500 years. European explorers first described these temples in the 1820s. Their drawings and notes helped record details about the temples, which are no longer there today. In 1862, five inscriptions from the Third Intermediate Period were found by an Egyptian officer and moved to the Cairo Museum. However, scientific digging did not begin until 1916, when a team from Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, led by George Reisner, started exploring. From the 1970s, a team from the University of Rome La Sapienza, led by Sergio Donadoni, continued exploring. In the 1980s, a team from the Boston Museum, led by Timothy Kendall, joined them.

Larger temples, like the Temple of Amun, are still considered sacred by the local people today. The painted chambers with carved walls in the Temple of Mut are well preserved.

• The last remaining pillars of Napata's Temple of Amun at the base of Jebel Barkal
• A stone statue of a ram
• A lion-headed god named Apademak with Pharaoh Taharqa (on the right) in the Jebel Barkal Temple of Mut
• Pharaoh Taharqa is shown walking with Queen Takahatenamun, who is shaking a sistrum, in the Jebel Barkal Temple of Mut

Temple B700 was built by Atlanersa and decorated by Senkamanisken. However, it is now mostly destroyed. It received a sacred object called the bark of Amun from a nearby temple, B500, during special religious events. It may have been used for the coronation of kings during the early Napatan period, around the middle of the 7th century BC. Senkamanisken is shown hitting enemies on the temple walls.

A hieroglyphic inscription on the temple explains how the god Amun chose Senkamanisken to be king:

— Amun inscription, frieze of Senkamanisken, Temple B700, Jebel Barkal.

• Ruins of Temple B700 at Jebel Barkal showing Senkamanisken hitting enemies, as drawn by Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds in 1821
• Senkamanisken is shown defeating enemies in front of God Amun at Jebel Barkal (at the pylon of building B700, west of the main temple)
• A close-up detail of Senkamanisken defeating enemies at Jebel Barkal

Pyramids

Jebel Barkal was used as a place for burying kings and queens during the Meroitic Kingdom. The earliest burials were from the 3rd century BC.

• Bar. 1: A king from the middle of the 1st century BCE
• Bar. 2: King Teriqas (around 29 to 25 BCE)
• Bar. 4: Queen Amanirenas (1st century BCE)
• Bar. 6: Queen Nawidemak (1st century BCE)
• Bar. 7: King Sabrakamani (3rd century BCE)
• Bar. 9: A king or queen from the early 2nd century CE
• Bar. 11: King Aktisanes (3rd century BCE)
• Bar. 14: King Aryamani (3rd century BCE)
• Bar. 15: King Kash[…]merj Imen (3rd century BCE)

• Pyramids located near Jebel Barkal
• Pyramids at Jebel Barkal in 1821
• Pyramids of Jebel Barkal today
• Pyramids in the southern group

History of Excavation of the Site

The city remains at Napata have not been thoroughly explored yet, but piles of broken stones suggest the area was likely an important settlement long ago. There is no evidence of a settlement that existed before Egypt, though more discoveries may change this understanding. The oldest buildings found at Napata date to the middle of the eighteenth Dynasty. The first archaeologist to study the site was George A. Reisner, who worked there from 1916 to 1920 and dug up several buildings. His first major discovery was a large Meroitic structure (named "B 100") from the first century CE. At first, Reisner believed this building was used for administration, but it is now known to have been a palace.

Artifacts in Museums

• A large statue of King Aspelta from the Temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal. Located in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
• The Stele of Piye was discovered at Jebel Barkal. Located in the Cairo Museum.
• The Stele of Tantamani. Located in the Cairo Museum.
• A golden bracelet found in the tomb of a royal family member at Gebel Barkal. From the Meroitic period, 250–100 BCE.
• A barque stand from Temple B700 showing Atlanersa holding up the heavens. Now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
• A Djed amulet from Gebel Barkal, 25th Dynasty. Ânkh-Djed-Ouas (British Museum, EA 54412).