Geography and Origins of Nubia: The A-Group and C-Group

Nubia stretched along the Nile from the First Cataract at Aswan to the Sixth Cataract near Khartoum, traditionally divided into Lower Nubia, between the first and second cataracts, and Upper Nubia, extending south toward the third through sixth cataracts. The cataracts broke up continuous river navigation, and this fragmentation helped split the region into distinct zones of political control. Because the climate was arid, agriculture depended almost entirely on the annual Nile flood, while gold deposits in the Eastern Desert drew sustained Egyptian interest over the centuries. The Egyptians called the land "Ta-Seti," the "Land of the Bow," a name honoring Nubian skill with the bow, and the term "Kush" appears in Egyptian sources from the Middle Kingdom onward, used both by Nubians in their own inscriptions and by outsiders — Egyptians, Assyrians, and Hebrews, who rendered it "Cush" in the Bible.