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KENNETH GARRETT PHOTOGRAPHY

KING TAHARQA. Called Tirhaqah in the Bible (2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9), Taharqa of Cush became the greatest of the Napatan kings, ruling over Cush and Egypt from 690 to 664 BC. His court artists expressed this double kingship by placing two royal cobras (uraei) on his headdress, as in this stone statue currently in the Kerma Museum in northern Sudan. Taharqa built many temples and monuments in Cush and Egypt, including the largest pyramid in Nubia. But he was also one of the last of the Napatan pharaohs, as King Ashurbanipal of Assyria conquered Egypt in 664, effectively ending Cushite rule over Egypt.