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Kashta was a king of the Kushite Dynasty. His name names translates literally as "The Kushite".

e Kashta ruled Nubia from Napata
Napata

Napata was a city-state on the west bank of the Blue Nile River, some 400 km north of Khartoum, the present capital of Sudan. It was built around 1345 BC by the Nubians....
, which is 400 km north of Khartoum
Khartoum

Khartoum is the Capital of Sudan and of Khartoum . It is located at the confluence point of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia....
, the modern capital of Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
, he also exercised a strong degree of control--over Upper Egypt by managing to install his daughter, Amenirdis I
Amenirdis I

The Ancient Kushite princess commonly known as Amenirdis I was the daughter of Kashta and sister of Piye and Shabaka. Kashta arranged to have her adopted by the Divine Adoratrice of Amun, Shepenupet I, at Thebes, Egypt as her successor This shows that Kashta already controlled Upper Egypt prior to the reign of Piye, his successor....
, as the presumptive God's Wife of Amun
God's Wife of Amun

God's Wife of Amun was the highest ranking priestess of the Amun cult, an important Ancient Egyptian religious institution centered in Thebes during the second millennium BCE , at these times the most important city in Egypt....
 in Thebes
Thebes, Egypt

Thebes was a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile . It was the capital of Waset, the fourth Upper Egyptian Nome ....
 in line to succeed the serving Divine Adoratrice of Amun, Shepenupet I, Osorkon III's daughter.






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Kashta was a king of the Kushite Dynasty. His name names translates literally as "The Kushite".

Kushite rule of Upper Egypt under Kashta

While Kashta ruled Nubia from Napata
Napata

Napata was a city-state on the west bank of the Blue Nile River, some 400 km north of Khartoum, the present capital of Sudan. It was built around 1345 BC by the Nubians....
, which is 400 km north of Khartoum
Khartoum

Khartoum is the Capital of Sudan and of Khartoum . It is located at the confluence point of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia....
, the modern capital of Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
, he also exercised a strong degree of control--over Upper Egypt by managing to install his daughter, Amenirdis I
Amenirdis I

The Ancient Kushite princess commonly known as Amenirdis I was the daughter of Kashta and sister of Piye and Shabaka. Kashta arranged to have her adopted by the Divine Adoratrice of Amun, Shepenupet I, at Thebes, Egypt as her successor This shows that Kashta already controlled Upper Egypt prior to the reign of Piye, his successor....
, as the presumptive God's Wife of Amun
God's Wife of Amun

God's Wife of Amun was the highest ranking priestess of the Amun cult, an important Ancient Egyptian religious institution centered in Thebes during the second millennium BCE , at these times the most important city in Egypt....
 in Thebes
Thebes, Egypt

Thebes was a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile . It was the capital of Waset, the fourth Upper Egyptian Nome ....
 in line to succeed the serving Divine Adoratrice of Amun, Shepenupet I, Osorkon III's daughter. This development was "the key moment in the process of the extension of Kushite power over Egyptian territories" under Kashta's rule since it officially legitimized the Kushite takeover of the Thebaid region. The Hungarian Kushite scholar László Török notes that there were probably already Kushite garrisons stationed in Thebes itself during Kashta's reign both to protect this king's authority over Upper Egypt and to thwart a possible future invasion of this region from Lower Egypt.

Török observes that Kashta's appearance as King of Upper and Lower Egypt and peaceful takeover of Upper Egypt is suggested both "by the fact that the descendants of Osorkon III, Takeloth III and Rudamun continued to enjoy a high social status in Thebes in the second half of the 8th and in the first half of the 7th century" as is shown by their burials in this city as well as the joint activity between the Divine Adoratrice Shepenupet I and the God's Wife of Amun Elect Amenirdis I, Kashta's daughter. A stela from Kashta's reign has been found in Elephantine
Elephantine

Elephantine is an island in the Nile, located just downstream of the Cataracts of the Nile at at the southern border of Ancient Egypt. This region is referred to as Upper Egypt because the ancient Egyptians oriented themselves toward the direction from which the river flowed....
 (modern day Aswan
Aswan

Aswan , Egyptian language: Swenet , Coptic language: Swan; Greek language: Syene; ) is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate....
)--at the local temple dedicated to the God Khnum--which attests to his control of this region. It bears his royal prenomen: Nimaatre. Egyptologists today believe that either he or more likely Piye
Piye

Piye, was a Kushite king and founder of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt who ruled Egypt from the city of Napata, located deep in Nubia, Sudan....
 was the Year 12 Nubian king mentioned in a well-known inscription at Wadi Gasus which associates the Adopted God's Adoratice of Amun, Amenirdis, Kashta's daughter together with Year 19 of the serving God's Wife of Amun, Shepenupet I
Shepenupet I

Shepenupet I was the first of the "hereditary" God's Wife or Divine Adoratrice of Amun to wield political power in ancient Thebes, Egypt and its surrounding region....
, daughter of Osorkon III
Osorkon III

Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon III Si-Ese was Pharaoh of Egypt in the 8th Century BC. He was the famous Crown Prince and High Priests of Amun at Thebes Osorkon B, son of Takelot II by his Great Royal Wife Kamama-Merytmut II....
. Kashta's wife was Queen Pebatma.

The pyramids of el-Kurru contain the tombs of Alara
Alara

Alara may refer to:* ALARA, an acronym for "As Low As Reasonably Achievable."* Alara of Nubia, the unifier of Kush and grandfather of king Taharqa...
, Kashta and his son Piye
Piye

Piye, was a Kushite king and founder of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt who ruled Egypt from the city of Napata, located deep in Nubia, Sudan....
 (Piankhi), together with Piye's successors Shabaka
Shabaka

Shabaka was a Kushite pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt, between . He succeeded his brother Piye on the throne, and adopted the throne name of the 6th-dynasty ruler Pepi II....
, Shebitku
Shebitku

Shebitku was the third king of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt who ruled from according to Dan'el Kahn's most recent academic research. He was the nephew and successor of Shabaka....
 and Tantamani
Tantamani

Tantamani or Tanwetamani or Tementhes was king of History of Ancient Egypt , and a member of the Nubian or Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt....
. Kashta's reign length is unknown. Some sources credit Kashta as the founder of the 25th dynasty since he was the first Kushite king known to have expanded his kingdom's influence into Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt

File:Ancient Egypt map-en.svgUpper Egypt is a narrow strip of land that extends from the Cataracts of the Nile section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Asyut is sometimes known as Middle Egypt....
. Under Kashta's reign, the native Kushite population of his kingdom, situated between the third and fourth cataracts of the Nile, became rapidly 'Egyptianized' and adopted Egyptian traditions, religion and culture.