Wach-Ka-Ra.
Aspelta, 625 B.C. Killed a colony of raw-meat-eaters at Barkal.
Pankhaluru, before 560 B.C.
Heru-Sa-Atef, Amen Sa Meri. A great warrior. 560-525 B.C.
Nastasenen, 525-517 B.C. Ruled over Kenset and the kingdom of Alut (Napata and Soba?); conquered many people.
Between the years 625 and 560 the capital seems to have been shifted from Napata to Meroe. The kingdom ruled by these monarchs included Alwa, a place identified with the later Soba on the Blue Nile. The connection with Egypt was weakened; Heru-Sa-Atef found the royal palace at Napata in ruins and restored it; his successor Nastasenen re-visited it and went on a journey of inspection as far north probably as the 3rd Cataract, but Meroe was the principal seat of his kingdom. Nastasenen mentions on his inscription five campaigns, apparently against the rich pastoral peoples of the Eastern Desert, from whom he captured in all nearly 2,000,000 head of cattle, sheep, goats, etc. At Meroe, about 40 miles to the south of the Atbara, at a place now termed Bagarawiya, were built temples and pyramids copied from Napata.
It was in his reign that, according to Herodotus, Cambyses, first king of the Twenty-seventh Dynasty (Persian), sent an Embassy into Ethiopia, and on this being received by the natives with jeers, collected a large army and sent it south against them. B.C. 527He detached 50,000 men from the army when it arrived at Thebes against Siwa, or more probably Kharga, Oasis, but these were all overwhelmed by a sandstorm and were never heard of again. The remainder, ill-supplied with food or transport, marched into a desert on the way south, ate their transport animals, and finally began on each other; the greater part undoubtedly perished of hunger and thirst. It is impossible to trace where the disaster happened (Arbain road?), but it appears not to have been very far south, perhaps no further than the latitude of Aswan. The latest critic (Heinrich Schäfer) argues from Nastasenen’s inscription that Cambyses sent, in concert with the desert expedition, another one by river. This latter expedition seems to have reached the 3rd Cataract, where it was met and defeated by Nastasenen; this is, however, not yet universally accepted. Cambyses is reported to have himself reached the “Island” of Meroe, to have built a town there, and to have named it after his sister Meroe, who died there; but this is certainly a fable.
Between B.C. 525 and 260 came 11 more kings, but their chronology is more than doubtful, and little is known of them beyond their names, which are as follows:—
- Heru Nekht.
- Sekheper en Ra, Senka Amen Seken.
- Khuka Ra, Athlenersa (and four other names).
- Kheper ka Ra Amen Netek.
- Amen-tani-Ralbath.
- Amen Arit, Kenthahebit.
- Ankh Ra Ra, Arkenkhernlu.
- Kenrethreknen.
- Khenem ab Ra, Amenarkneb.
- Kalka, Kaltela.
- Ankh nefer ah Ra, Amen Mer Aser.
These names are here given for reference in case of future discoveries.