Amenhetep III
built a temple to Amen at Napata, the capital of Nubia, which lay
under the shadow of Mount Barkal; Akhunaten erected a sanctuary of the
Sun-Disk there; and Ramses II also built there.
[Illustration: 452.jpg THE ROOK OF KONOSSO IN JANUARY, 1902, BEFORE THE
BUILDING OF THE DAM AND FORMATION OF THE RESERVOIR.]
The place in fact was a sort of appanage of the priests of Amen at
Thebes, and when the last priest-king evacuated Thebes, leaving it to
the Bubastites of the XXIId Dynasty, it was to distant Napata that he
retired. Here a priestly dynasty continued to reign until, two centuries
later, the troubles and misfortunes of Egypt seemed to afford an
opportunity for the reassertion of the exiled Theban power. Piankhi
Mera-men returned to Egypt in triumph as its rightful sovereign, but his
successors, Shabak, Shabatak, and Tirha-kah, had to contend constantly
with the Assyrians. Finally ITrdamaneh, Tirhakah's successor, returned
to Nubia, leaving Egypt, in the decadence of the Assyrian might, free to
lead a quiet existence under Psametik I and the succeeding monarchs of
the XXVIth Dynasty. When Cambyses conquered Egypt he aspired to conquer
Nubia also, but his army was routed and destroyed by the Napatan king,
who tells us in an inscription how he defeated "the man Kambasauden,"
who had attacked him.
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