By Evan Andrews
Histories of early African civilizations often focus solely
on ancient Egypt, but the continent was home to several other powerful empires.
From ancient Sudan to medieval Zimbabwe,
we here are a few African kingdoms that made their mark on history.
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| Source: Total War Center |
The Kingdom of Kush
Though often overshadowed by its Egyptian neighbours to the
north, the Kingdom of Kush stood as a regional power in Africa for over a
thousand years. This ancient Nubian
empire reached its peak in the second millennium B.C., when it ruled over a
vast swath of territory along the Nile River in what is now Sudan. Almost all
that is known about Kush comes from Egyptian sources, which indicate that it
was an economic centre that operated a lucrative market in ivory, incense, iron
and especially gold.
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| Source: keywordsuggest.org |
The kingdom was both a trading partner and a military
rival of Egypt—it even ruled Egypt as the 25th Dynasty—and it adopted many of
its neighbour’s customs. The Kushites worshipped some of the Egyptian gods,
mummified their dead and built their own types of pyramids. The area
surrounding the ancient Kushite capital of Meroe is now home to the ruins of
over 200 pyramids—more than in all of Egypt.
Source: History
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