HISTORY OF THE LAND OF KUSH AND ATLANTIS
• For more than two millenaries, the Kushites were in rivalry with Egyptians for the domination of the Nile valley. Greeks called them Ethiopians (black people), but their territories corresponded to the medieval Upper Nubia and now pertain to Sudan Republic province of Butana.
• Four historic periods can be distinguished for the Land of Kush according to Egyptian and Nubian hieroglyphic texts and local archeological findings.
1)
The kingdom of Kerma (2200 to1550 B.C. : Old Kingdom and S.I.P. in Egypt)
The Kushite royal city of Kerma was settled just south of the 3rd cataract. Pharaohs Sesostris I and Sesostris III of the XXIIth dynasty had to built several big fortresses between the 1st and the 3rd cataracts of the Nile to protect their South frontier against recurrent attacks of their bellicose neighbor. The rulers of Kerma allied to Hyksos to strangle the frail kingdom of Thebes under the 17th dynnasty. They were defeated by Kamose around 1550 B.C.
2)
The Egyptian dominion (1500 to1069 B.C. : New Kingdom in Egypt)
From the reigns of pharaoh Ahmose (XVIIIth dynasty) to Ramses XI (XXth dynasty) the Land of Kush was administered by a viceroy, vassal of pharaoh.
(I consider the beginning of this period as the date of foundation of Atlantis by Poseidon=Amun = Kamose=Thutmose I).3)
The kingdom of Napata (1000 to 568 B.C.) :
In 752 B.C Piankhi a Kushite ruler originating from Napata conquered Egypt as far as Memphis and Sais and one of his successors
Taharqa spread his kingdom from Khartum to Lebanon and as far as Etruria which is Tyrrhenia according to Strabo. These black pharaohs of the XXVth dynasty reigned on both Nubia and Egypt. Finally they were expelled from Egypt by the Assyrian king Assurbanipal in 568 B.C. but kept on to reign on Upper Nubia (Kush) for 750 years.
But in 591 B.C. pharaoh Psametik II of the XXVIth Egyptian dynasty made a military campaign against Kushites and burnt the temples of Djebel Barkal the sacred city of Kush where reigned king Aspelta. The Egyptian army was led by a Libyan general Amasis who 20 years later will become himself pharaoh in Sais.The Egyptian soldiers were helped by a contingent of Greek mercenaries. It was a great victory for these armies who defeated completely the Kushites of Napata.
As in Djebek Barkal a rockslide caused by an earthquake has destroyed and closed the entry of the temple of Mut :
there is a possibility that Egyptian soldiers sleeping in the temple could be burried under the rocks in 591 B.C. To prove that, it would be necessary to remove blocks of stone as big as a car... If human bones and weapons could be found there, this could date the earthquake on 591 B.C. The same earthquake could destroy the dams and ramparts in Meroe allowing a flood of the Nile to drown the city in the monsoon season. This could be the final catastrophe described by Plato taking in account that the city of Meroe was existing before the so-called period “kingdom of Meroe”.
In fact the city remained inundated only for a few months and was shorlty after reoccupied. So it was in the late 6th century B.C. that the historian Hecataeus of Miletus visited Meroe. His now lost book “Periegesis” could be the main source of information of Plato’s Atlantis and of Strabo’s report about Meroe. 4)
The kingdom of Meroe (568 B.C. to A.D 350.)
After the Egyptian raid on Napata during the reign of the Kushite king Aspelta the royal residence was transferred from Napata to Meroe in 568 B.C.
It is obvious that Plato described this moment when he said in Critias 115c about the descendants of Poseidon (rulers of Napata arriving in Meroe) : “Their first work was to bridge the rings of water round their mother’s original home…* and so on. Thus improving the works previously made by Poseidon (Kamose) nine centuries before. The floruit of the kingdom of Meroe is considered to be from the 3rd century B.C. to the A.D. 3rd century and most part of the remains discovered by archeologists were dated from the greco-roman period. (But until now, only 30% of the city were investigated).
It is around A.D. 350 that the Ethiopian (Abyssinian) king Ezana of Axum conquered Meroe which disappeared from history.
*
There are some archeological indices indicating that the dynasty of kings of Napata originated from Meroe where some remains were dated from the 8th century B.C.