[tense music]
Nuri is one of the most intensive concentrations
of pyramids anywhere in the world,
across any culture and civilization.
[upbeat music]
In Sudan, in fact, there are more pyramids than in Egypt.
And this is something that people
don't think of very often.
NARRATOR: Kush and Egypt have a long interwoven
history, one that is just beginning
to be more fully understood.
FEMALE: Most of what we know in the history books
about the kingdom of Kush comes from the perspective
of the Egyptians, because the Egyptians had writing.
And the Egyptians wrote everything down, everything.
They pushed a phenomenal amount of paper,
we would say in today's world.
And we are fortunate to have a lot of those records,
but those records frame everyone outside of Egypt
as somehow not equal to or lesser than.
History is written by the victors, the 1%.
And archaeology tells the story of the underdogs,
of the other 99%.
The best way to really verify or disqualify a historical account
is to look for the facts on the ground.
Sometimes it jives with the history
books and sometimes it doesn't.
[tense music]
NARRATOR: Archaeologist Geoff Emberling
has excavated many important Kush monuments, uncovering
its past brick by brick.
GEOFF EMBERLING: We know that from the very first moment
that Kush appears in history, around 2000 BC,
it was powerful.
It was so powerful that the Egyptians, at that time,
built a series of fortresses along the Nile
to protect themselves against the military power of Kush.
NARRATOR: From its prime position on the Nile,
the Kush Empire control trade routes from the south
up to Egypt, transporting ivory, leopard skins,
precious stones, and gold.
GEOFF EMBERLING: They had the connections with inner Africa
that could bring these exotic products
all the way to Egypt and to the wider Mediterranean world.
FEMALE: They were the go betweens
and they became very, very rich and powerful off being
in that position.
NARRATOR: Egypt relied on Kushite gold
for their elaborate burials and fierce Kushite warriors
to supplement Egyptian armies.
Eventually, the Kushites gained so much power,
the Egyptians saw them as a threat
and invaded their neighbors to the south.
For the next 400 years, Kush was controlled by Egypt.
In the beginning, the Egyptians imposed
their gods and temples on Kush.
FEMALE: They were taking the elites of Kushite society
and giving them Egyptian educations.
NARRATOR: But the Kushites, eventually,
became even more devout spiritual followers
than their conquerors.
Even as the Egyptian empire began
to lose strength and withdraw in 1100 BC,
the Kushites continued building their tombs
in the shapes of pyramids.
The jewelry found inside the burials
makes clear their devotion to Egyptian gods.
We know that by at least, at the bare minimum,
by the 8th century BC, Kush is on the rise.
They have thrown off the shackles
of their Egyptian colonizers, but they do
retain some Egyptian elements.
NARRATOR: For the center of their kingdom,
the Kushites took over a place full of spiritual significance
to the Egyptians, a stunning sandstone butte rising
high above the desert landscape, Jebal
Barkal, or sacred mountain.
From here, the Kush kings were able to control an increasingly
extensive territory.
GEOFF EMBERLING: Ultimately, that rise of power
led to the Kushites being able to conquer all of Egypt,
and that's historically just remarkable.
[upbeat music]
NARRATOR: For nearly a hundred years,
a succession of five Kushite kings ruled all of Egypt.
From Napata, their capital, they controlled more area
than any other Egyptian pharaohs,
stretching from modern day Khartoum to the Mediterranean.
One of these Kushite kings, a renowned warrior
named Taharqa, established Nuri as a royal cemetery.
GEOFF EMBERLING: In many ways Taharqa was the most
notable 25th dynasty king.
The cemetery that he established at Nuri
became the royal burial ground for Kush for over 300 years,
so he became the ancestor that the succeeding kings of Kush
wanted to connect themselves to.
[tense music]
NARRATOR: Kings like Nastasen, who Pierce Paul is hoping
may still lie inside his tomb.
I would like to find evidence of Nastasen himself.
I'm not saying I want to come up face-to-face
with him in the middle of the third chamber in the dark,
but it'd be an experience.