An African kingdom on the Nile

There are two articles by Jill Kamil, on the Al Ahram Weekly website this week, about Nubia:

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/798/he1.htm

"In a lecture at the Canadian Institute of Archaeology in Cairo last month, Krzys Grzymski of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) described the use of modern technology to uncover the origins and topography, history and development of Meroe, an African kingdom which developed along the upper reaches of the Nile about 200km north of Khartoum between 800 BC and 350 AD."

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/798/he2.htm

"To appreciate the significance of this African kingdom, which once controlled important trade routes from central Africa to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and in the third century BC held sway over the Nile to within reach of Aswan, it is important to note that Egyptologists tend to regard Lower Nubia as Egyptian territory, virtually an extension of Egypt."