# Meroe emerges as a southern royal centre (c. 590 BCE)

URL: https://allhistories.com/sudan/timeline/-590-meroe-emerges-as-a-southern-royal-centre
Location: Meroe, Sudan
Themes: main-event

Archaeology shows a royal settlement and cemetery at Meroe, on the east bank of the Nile in the Butana, from the sixth century BCE. The city sat in a zone of better rainfall than the desert reaches around Napata, with grazing, millet and wood for smelting. Over time it became the administrative centre of the Kushite state, long before kings abandoned burial at Nuri. Geography matters: Meroe lay close to routes leading to the Red Sea and the highlands of Ethiopia, and near rich ironstone deposits. Napata remained religiously important, but the new location made trade easier and reduced exposure to Egyptian attack from the north. The kingdom's later name in Greek sources, Aethiopia with Meroe as capital, reflects this change. At the date of this event the principal authority over the largest part of historic Sudan, by the convention of this dataset, lay with Aspelta, King of Kush (c. 593–568 BCE). Meroe gave the Kushite state its second and longest phase. The city remains one of the most important archaeological sites in Sudan and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011. It also set the geographic stage for later wealth based on iron, cattle, gold and long-distance caravans.

## Why it matters
Meroe became the long-lived southern capital that defined the later Kushite civilisation.

Ruler at the Time: [Aspelta](https://allhistories.com/sudan/rulers/aspelta)

## Sources
- [Meroë](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meroë)
- [Kingdom of Kush](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Kush)
- [Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeological_Sites_of_the_Island_of_Meroe)