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El-Kurru was one of the royal cemeteries used by the Nubian royal family. Most of the pyramids date to the early part of the Kushite period, from Alara of Nubia (795–752 BC) to King Nastasen (335–315 BC).
El-Kurru was the first of the three royal cemeteries used by the Kushite royals of Napata, also referred to as Egypt's 25th Dynasty, and is home to some of the royal Nubian Pyramids. It is located between the 3rd and 4th cataracts of the Nile about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the river in what is now Northern state, Sudan. El-Kurru was first excavated by George Reisner in 1918 and 1919 and after his death his assistant Dows Dunham took over his work and published the excavation report on El-Kurru in 1950. The El-Kurru cemetery was primarily used from about 860 BC until 650 BC. The first tomb with a name attached to it is that of King Piye dating to about 750 BC, the sixteen earlier tombs possibly belong to Piye's royal predecessors. The last 25th dynasty king, Tantamani, was buried at El-Kurru around 650 BC. The subsequent Napatan rulers chose to be buried at the royal cemetery at Nuri instead. However, in the mid-4th century the 20th king, whose name is unknown, chose to have his tomb, as well as that of his queen, built at El-Kurru.
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Jebel Barkal
The name Gebel Barkal specifically refers to a prominent hill used since antiquity for navigation. At the base of the hill lie several ancient temples and palaces, with even more spread out along a 60 km stretch of the Nile, just upriver from Merowe. Together, these sites are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list as Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region
An archaeological museum on the eastern side of the archeological area of Jebel Barkal.