page_title: Taharqa
section_title: Reign
hierarchical_section_title: Taharqa / Reign
caption_attribution_description: English: Taharqo, Black Pharaohs Cache (Dukki Gel ) , Kerma Museum,Sudan (2) During the excavation of a temple in Dukki Gel in January 2003,a pit containing 40 black granite statue fragments was discovered.It was identified as a favissa, where venerated sculptures were deposited for safety, handled with great care. The statues were deliberately broken in order to destroy the “power” of the pharaohs represented: all are broken at the neck and the legs, and occasionally so are the arms, the mekes cases, the nose or the uraei. The granite is carefully polished, but some details of the clothing, the adornment or the skullcap are roughened. With this treatment, pigments and fabric covered with a thin layer of gilded gesso could better adhere to the stone. The so called Black Pharaohs are Taharqa, Tanwetamani, Senkamanisken, Anlamani, and Aspelta, who ruled Egypt in the 25th Dynasty.
context_page_description: Taharqa, also spelled Taharka or Taharqo, was a pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and qore of the Kingdom of Kush, from 690 to 664 BC. He was one of the "Black Pharaohs".
context_section_description: Although Taharqa's reign was filled with conflict with the Assyrians, it was also a prosperous renaissance period in Egypt and Kush.  The empire flourished under Taharqa, due in part to a particularly large Nile river flood, abundant crops,, and the "intellectual and material resources set free by an efficient central government."  Taharqa's inscriptions indicate that he gave large amounts of gold to the temple of amun at Kawa.  The Nile valley empire was as large as it had been since the New Kingdom. Taharqa and the 25th dynasty revived Egyptian culture.  Religion, arts, and architecture were restored to their glorious Old, Middle, and New Kingdom forms.  During Taharqa's reign, the "central features of Theban theology were merged with Egyptian Middle and New Kingdom imperial ideology.".  Under Taharqa, the cultural integration of Egypt and Kush reached such a point that it could not be reversed, even after the Assyrian conquest.
  Taharqa restored existing temples and built new ones. Particularly impressive were his additions to the Temple at Karnak, new temple at Kawa, and temples at Jebel Barkal.  Taharqa continued the 25th dynasty's ambitious program to develop Jebel Barkal into a "monumental complex of sancturies...centered around the great temple of...amun."  The similarity of Jebel Barkal to Karnak "seems to be central to the builders at Jebel Barkal.".  The rest of Taharqa's constructions served to create "Temple Towns", which were "local centers of government, production, and redistribution."
  It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom.  Taharqa built the largest pyramid (52 square meters at base) in the Nubian region at Nuri (near El-Kurru) with the most elaborate Kushite rock-cut tomb.  Taharqa was buried with "over 1070 shabtis of varying sizes and made of granite, green ankerite, and alabaster."
caption: Portrait of Taharqa, Kerma Museum
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