Ancient region of the Nile River valley, northeastern Africa.
Its borders originally extended north to include Aswān and, before completion of the Aswan High Dam, the first cataract of the Nile in Upper Egypt. The region now encompasses part of The Sudan and southern Egypt and contains the Nubian Desert in the northeast. For about 1,800 years in ancient times it was politically dominated by Egypt, although Nubian kings did sit on the Egyptian throne during the 25th dynasty. The kingdom of Kush and its culture were centred in southern Nubia. Later Nubia was the centre of a powerful state with Dunqulah as its capital (6th–14th centuries AD), after which it was captured by the Arabs. The region was conquered by Egypt in 1820–22.