Kashta

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Kashta was a king of the Kushite Dynasty whose names translates literally as "The Kushite".[1]

While he ruled Nubia from Napata, which is 400 km north of Khartoum, the modern capital of Sudan, he also exercised a strong degree of influence--though not control--over Upper Egypt by managing to install his daughter, Amenirdis I, as the God's Wife of Amun in Thebes. A stela from his reign has been found in Elephantine (modern day Aswan)--at the local temple dedicated to the God Khnum--which attests to his control of this region.[2] It bears his royal prenomen: Nimaatre. Egyptologists today believe that either he or more likely Piye was the Year 12 Nubian king mentioned in a well-known inscription at Wadi Gasus which associates the Adopted God's Adoratice of Amun, Amenirdis, Kashta's daughter together with Year 19 of the serving God's Wife of Amun, Shepenupet I, daughter of Osorkon III. Kashta's wife was Queen Pebatma.

The pyramids of el-Kurru contain the tombs of Kashta and his son Piye (Piankhi), together with Piye's successors Shabaka, Shebitku and Tantamani. Kashta's reign length is unknown. Some sources credit Kashta as the founder of the 25th dynasty in Upper Egypt since he was the first Kushite king known to have expand his kingdom's influence into a part of Egypt.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Nicholas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Blackwell Books), 1992. p.334
  2. ^ Grimal, op. cit., p.335
  3. ^ Encyclopedia Brittanica, 15th Edition
Preceded by
Alara		 Kushite king
Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt		 Succeeded by
Piye


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