NURI (left bank of the Nile)

This cemetery is located about 10 km from Jebel Barkal. Reisner identified 27 burials of kings and 53 of queens.

The pyramids are relatively well preserved and the chambers are decorated with Egyptian themes and hieroglyphs.

It would appear that Taharqo was the first ruler to be buried at Nuri. His pyramid is the largest. Reisner discovered in it 1070 statuettes called shawabtis (fictitious servants of the king in the after-life). According to Timothy Kendall, in choosing the site of Nuri, the priests wanted to re-launch the theological beliefs of this great king and translate certain concepts in relation to his tragic end. His funerary complex had subterranean chambers, replicas of the Osireion built by Seti I at Abydos and symbolising the mythical burial chamber of the assassinated god.

The last ruler to be buried at the cemetery of Nuri was Nastasen (335-310 BC). At this time the residence of the Napatan rulers was at Meroe. We suppose that at the beginning of the VI Century BC the raid of the Egyptian king Psammeticus II on Napata caused the move of the capital to Meroe.