THE PYRAMIDS OF NURI

By schématisant a little, one might say that the Site site is Le napatéen. However, it is not in the same state as its illustrious counterpart. Let us remember that it is older and that the construction stone is not the same. In fact, the necropolis of Nuri précéda that of Merowe. It probably welcomes, in the highest pyramid and the oldest of the site, the most famous Des sovereigns, Taharqa, Pharaoh Black of the xxviii dynasty. This is a little difficult to see nowadays, given the level of erosion of the building, but it is in principle the fourth, starting from the south, in the main alignment. The site has over fifty tombs of sovereign and sovereign.

In 664 BC, Taharqa decided to stand out from his predecessors by settling permanently over 5 km north of Karima on the other shore. He was not really followed by his successors, perhaps unhappy about what he left from Lower Egypt to the Assyrians, returning to El-Kurru. After the fall of the Black Pharaohs, Nuri became, until the third century, the necropolis of the sovereigns of Kush. Note that, for Taharqa, controversy has long divided archaeologists as to the real location of its last stay, after the discovery in Sedeinga in the 1960 s of a grave with a cartridge bearing its name.

Egyptian influence was now considerable at the peak of Napata's power. As with architecture, funeral rites were inspired by those in the north. The use of gold masks for the deceased and that of canopes vessels for its organs bears witness to this. During the first European excavations, in 1917, we were able to discover several funeral chambers, with some of their treasures, including many chaouabti (or oushebti), momiformes figurines symbolizing servants accompanying their master in the other world.