A stretch of the Nile where the river crosses a band of hard granite and other crystalline rock and breaks into rapids, rocky islets and shallows that slowed or stopped boats. Six are numbered, counting upstream from Aswan to just north of modern Khartoum. The First, just above Elephantine, was Egypt's traditional southern border; the Second closed off Lower Nubia and was guarded by a chain of Middle Kingdom fortresses. In the 18th Dynasty Egypt's reach ran far beyond both: Thutmose I and Thutmose III cut boundary inscriptions at Kurgus, between the Fourth and the Fifth, and Napata, near the Fourth, became the southern limit of Egyptian rule.
War, diplomacy, and empire
← Back to the Amarna World glossary