Jebel Barkal is a small mountain in the northern state of Sudan situated on a large bend of the Nile River. The Pyramids of Jebel Barkal, also known as the Pyramids of Kush, include over 200 pyramids found south of the Egyptian border. Gebel means mountain, Jebel Barkal is a butte about 300 feet tall that became the sacred centre of Kush, an important nexus for the Egyptians and the Nubians.

Pharaoh Taharqa, the greatest of the 25th Dynasty Pharaohs, built an important complex of temples at Jebel Barkal to honour Amun-Re, and some pyramids were constructed there.

The pyramids are not alone in this place as there are ruins of about 13 temples and three palaces that surround the area. It was only discovered around the 1800s and is believed to have been an extension of the empires of Egypt to the south. It is believed that it was the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III that extended this empire.

It is said that this place was a perfect specimen of the southern influences on Egyptian culture. The mountain is regarded as sacred by the Egyptians of the 18th Dynasty. From its summit, there is an excellent view of the Nile. At its foot lies the Temple of Amun , second only in length to the famous Temple of Karnak . This was once surrounded by about six smaller temples, and ruins of these, together with statuary and hieroglyphics, make this an interesting Cushite site.

Lying west of the temple are the Jebel Barkal Pyramids. The pyramids are significantly smaller than those in Egypt. It can be surmised that this is due to the small population of the area having only very few workers at the time to build a pyramid. Also, it might be due to the cultural influences that were present in the area.

The mountain which has a flat top was apparently was used as a landmark by the traders in the important route between central Africa, Arabia, and Egypt, as the point where it was easier to cross the great river.

It rises abruptly from a desert plain and confronts the river with a sheer cliff 80 to 95 m high and approximately 200 m long. The mountain’s unusual appearance – its isolation, sharp profile, and its 75 m high pinnacle, in ancient times seems to have made it the subject of intense theological speculation. Probably in 1504-1492 BC, the Egyptians, during their conquest of Kush, identified Jebel Barkal as the residence of a southern form of their state god Amun of Karnak.

They called it variously "Pure Mountain” and "Thrones of the Two Lands,” and gave its sanctuary the same name as Karnak: Ipet-Sut. The mountain came to mark the official southern border of the Egyptian empire, and its Amun sanctuary thus became the most distant from Thebes, 1150 km downstream Since the Egyptians equated Creation with a mound as well as with the life-giving waters of the Nile, since Jebel Barkal gave tangible form to the mythical Mound, and since the inundation came from the distant south, it is little wonder that this Nubian mountain should have come to be seen as the original home of the Creator god, Amun, who at the beginning of time brought life to the land and renewed it annually with the inundation.

From Karima, a northern-Sudanese market town located some 400 km north of Khartoum with a population of about 15,000, the Jebel Barkal is just 2km south.

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