Cee Bee’s Podcast

In this episode, CeeBee is discussing the great Nubian King Piankhi. The Nubian king Piankhi (reigned ca. 741-ca. 712 B.C.) began the conquest of Lower Egypt which resulted in the establishment of the Twenty-fifth, or "Ethiopian, " Dynasty of pharaohs. This was one of the few times in African history when a state from the interior of the continent played a role in the politics of the Mediterranean. Piankhi was the hereditary ruler of the kingdom of Cush on the Upper Nile in what is now the northern Sudan. About 741 B.C. he succeeded his father, Kashta, who seems to have founded this Nubian Kingdom. By this time Lower Egypt had been in full decline for almost half a millennium. The Egyptian state was torn by internal power struggles among petty rulers, so the situation was ripe for a strong invader to take over. Piankhi moved steadily down the Nile, conquering towns one by one. By 721 B.C. he was in possession of Heracleopolis, and finally he captured Heliopolis in the Delta. At this point Piankhi regarded th