NUBIA, a region of north-east Africa, bounded by Egypt, the Red sea and the Libyan desert, and extending south in definitely to about Khartoum. It includes the Nile valley from Aswan near the first cataract to the confluence of the White and Blue Niles, stretching for about 56o m. between 16° and N. Nubia, however, has no strictly defined limits, and is little more than a geographical expression. It is first associated histori cally, with the Nobatae, a negro people removed by Diocletian from Kharga oasis to the Nile valley above Egypt, whence the Blemmyes had been driVen eastwards. From Nuba, the Arabic form of the name of this people, comes the modern Nubia.
The country consists mainly of sandy desert and rugged and arid steppes and plateaux through which flows the Nile. In this section of the river there occurs a continuous series of slight falls and rapids, and between Khartoum and Philae it makes a great S shaped bend, the region west of the Nile within the lower bend being the Bayuda Desert, and that east of the Nile the Nu bian Desert, which districts roughly correspond to the conventional divisions of Upper and Lower Nubia respectively. Most of Nubia is within the almost rainless zone. An auriferous district lies between the Nile and the Red Sea, in 22° N. Politically the whole of Nubia is now included either in Egypt or the Anglo Egyptian Sudan and has no administrative existence.
The life and agriculture of Egypt and the Sudan depend upon the Nile, which, for a great part of its course, flows through Nubia. To make irrigation possible in Egyptian territory a dam was constructed at Aswan, and barrages at Esna, Asyut and Zifta. Until 1919 the Nile waters were utilized solely by Egypt, but in that year the Sudan Government commenced a scheme to irrigate part of the Great Gezira plain by an enormous dam across the Blue Nile at Sennar, above Makwar, which was completed in 1925, when irrigation commenced and 300,00o feddans of land were ir rigated. The cotton produced in this area is estimated at 40,000, 000 lb. of lint. A barrage is in course of erection at Jabal Awliya (Gebel Aulia) about 35 m. south of Khartoum on the White Nile. Work was suspended in 1921 but recommenced in 1925.
Proposals have also been put forward to build a dam at the foot of Lake Albert in Uganda territory, to put a second dam across the Upper Blue Nile above the Sennar dam and also to erect a barrage at Nagh Hamadi in Egypt. The Government of Egypt naturally watches very closely the construction of irriga tion works in the upper reaches of the Nile, so that the whole irrigation problem of the Nile bristles with economic, and un fortunately, political difficulties which have more than once as sumed a very serious character. The construction of barrage works at Lake Tsana, in Abyssinia, has been suggested for the purpose of regulating and increasing the flow of water down the Blue Nile. This has led to a political controversy between Great Britain, Italy and Abyssinia. Attention has also been directed to the river Gash for irrigation purposes.
Linked-up with the problem of irrigation is that of communica tion in this region. The railway from Alexandria and Cairo ter minates at Aswan. The Nubian portion of the Nile is served by rail from Wadi Halfa via Berber, Khartoum to Sennar, with branches from the north of Abu Hamed to Merowi, from Sennar to El Obeid crossing the White Nile at Kosti, and from Berber eastwards to the Red sea at Port Sudan and Suakin. From Haiza
Junction on the latter section a branch passes southwards to Kassala and it is proposed to continue it to Sennar. (X.) The archaeology of Nubia begins with a rare palaeolithic (Acheulian) implement of white quartz from Faras below the Second Cataract. Prehistoric settlements of the copper age spread ing from Upper Egypt reached Dakkeh in the early period and held an isolated post at the Second Cataract in the later period. About the time of the ist dynasty the two cataracts and all the intervening valley were occupied by small communities with the same culture as their Egyptian neighbours, hut with two distinc tive features in the grave deposits—the best pottery is soft but very thin with brilliant black polish inside, the outside yellow brown variegated with red haematite, and the palettes are of local quartz instead of slate. This culture seems to have soon disap peared. The Pharaohs of the 5th and 6th dynasty sent exploring and trading parties through Nubia and drew contingents for their armies from the Wawat, Aam, Meza and other tribes ; but except some fortresses and an advanced trading post at Kerma beyond the Third Cataract they have left little trace. After the fall of the Old Kingdom a native civilization (known as the C-group) sprang up and long flourished between the first two cataracts. No dwell ings of these nomad pastoral people have been recognized ; they buried their dead in pits beneath orderly circular heaps of stones in the desert at some distance from the river. They used much leather, their black or red polished bowls are decorated with elab orate strap-work or plaited patterns, sometimes intensified by filling with white or with red, yellow and green earths; they made also the "prehistoric" sort of haematitic polished black-mouthed and other kinds of ware. Wawat of the valley and Meza (Beja, Blemmyes of the eastern desert?) alone were then the mercenary soldier tribes. The mother of Amenemhe I., founder of the 12th dynasty, was a Nubian and it is likely that these C-group people were on excellent terms with Egypt throughout that dynasty, whereas beyond the Second Cataract "Cush" appears as the ob ject of conquest, and a series of elaborate fortresses was built all through the cataract region, each with its temple, up to Kerma, the residence of a wealthy Egyptian governor, who imported Egyptian statuary and manufactures and skilled workmen, and developed native-coloured industries in pottery, glazed-ware, etc. The Egyptian governors, and the native kings who succeeded them after the fall of the 12th dynasty, were interred in huge tumuli with multitudes of slaves and retainers buried alive in native fash ion. The dead were laid on beds with their daggers, spears and knives; ostrich feathers and figures cut out of sheets of mica adorned the persons of the chiefs; exquisite haematitic pottery abounds, highly polished with grey and orange line between the black top and the red. Kerma was a great city in the midst of a barbarous and benighted kingdom of Cush (very different from the uniform wide-spread C-group), and only isolated burials of the same character generally associated with Egyptians, are found throughout Lower Nubia and Egypt.