Nubia summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Nubia.

Nubia, Ancient region of the Nile River valley, northeastern Africa. Its borders originally extended north to include Aswān and, before completion of the Aswan High Dam, the first cataract of the Nile in Upper Egypt. The region now encompasses part of Sudan and southern Egypt and contains the Nubian Desert in the northeast. For about 1,800 years in ancient times it was politically dominated by Egypt, although Nubian kings did sit on the Egyptian throne during the 25th dynasty. The kingdom of Kush and its culture were centred in southern Nubia. Later Nubia was the centre of a powerful state with Dunqulah as its capital (6th–14th centuries ce), after which it was captured by the Arabs. The region was conquered by Egypt in 1820–22.

A map of the continent of Africa, including its countries, boundaries, and capital cities. It also shows parts of Europe and Asia and surrounding bodies of water, including the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean.

Africa Summary

Africa, the second largest continent (after Asia), covering about one-fifth of the total land surface of Earth. The continent is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the mingling waters