Taharqa

Who is Taharqa?

Taharqa was a Kushite king of Napata, in what is now northern Sudan, who ruled as pharaoh of Egypt during the 25th Dynasty, sometimes called the "Nubian Dynasty." He came to the throne around 690 BC after his predecessor Shebitku, ruling over a unified kingdom that stretched from the Nile Delta deep into Nubia. Taharqa undertook extensive building projects, restoring and expanding temples at Karnak, Kawa, and Jebel Barkal, and is credited with reviving monumental Kushite architecture, including pyramids at Nuri. He is named in the Hebrew Bible as "Tirhakah, king of Cush," where he is described marching to challenge the Assyrian king Sennacherib during the siege of Jerusalem. Later in his reign, Taharqa faced repeated invasions from the Assyrian empire under Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, who eventually sacked Memphis and Thebes and drove the Kushite rulers back south into Nubia. He died around 664 BC, and his nephew Tantamani briefly continued the resistance before Kushite rule over Egypt ended. Taharqa remains one of the best-documented rulers of the Kingdom of Kush, remembered for his building programs and for defending his kingdom against the era's dominant imperial power.

Sources: 2 Kings 19:9 and Isaiah 37:9, Hebrew Bible (reference to "Tirhakah king of Cush") · British Museum, "Sudan, Egypt and Nubia" collection notes on the 25th Dynasty · Kenneth A. Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100-650 BC)