Kristen Miller African 191
October 8, 2012 Pharaoh Assignment

Pharaoh Taharqo of Kush

Taharqo was a pharaoh of the Ancient Egyptian 25th dynasty and king of the Kingdom of Kush, located in Northern Sudan. He was known as “the most powerful African in history known as the Emperor of the World.”
Taharqo was the son of Piye, the Nubian king of Napata who had first occupied Egypt, and the son of Queen Abar. Piye was a Kushite king and founder of the twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt who ruled Egypt from 753/752 BCE to 722 BCE. Taharqo took the throne after his uncle Shabaka and another male relative Shebitku. The flourishing crusades of Shabaka and Piye paved the path for a successful rule by Taharqo. Taharqo ruled Kush and Egypt from 690 to 664 BC. A sphinx symbolizes the great King Taharqo, the fourth pharaoh to rule over the united kingdoms of Kush and Egypt. This sphinx is very small, yet very fascinating. It is not just a cross between lion and man, it is a union between Egypt and Kush. The face is not representative of an Egyptian pharaoh’s face, because it is without doubt a black African, and this sphinx is the image of a black pharaoh. “Taharqo explicitly stated that he succeeded Shebitku with this statement: “I received the Crown in Memphis after the Falcon (i.e. Skebitku) flew to heaven” (Kitchen, 167). Taharqo, was the most significant of all the Kushite Kings. He began a golden age for his colossal new kingdom, and he thrived due to, rather than imposing Kushite traditions on the Egyptians, he engrossed and implemented theirs. “Even Kush itself, Taharqo built pyramids on the Egyptian model, and he worshipped the Egyptian god Amun; he restored temples in the Egyptian style, and his officials wrote Egyptian hieroglyphics. He used existing symbols and vocabulary of power, because those are the ones that are already familiar to the