Kush - The Forgotton Kingdom of Sudan

I am so excited to be a part of "Veiled Realm Art Challenge". I consider this as a personal project because I am going to create something about SUDAN which is my Hometown .

For the project I created an environment BASED on Kingdom of Kush which was a powerful and influential ancient african kingdom, closely tied to Egypt , known for its wealth and , Pyramids and long-lasting civilization.

Here's some brief about The kingdom of Kush :

It located to south of Egypt, maily in what is now SUDAN, its capital cities included Kerma , later Napta and then meroe,

It existed roughly from 2000 BCE to 350 CE, making it one of longest-lasting civilization in the Nile Valley.

Kush had a close relationship with Egypt. At times, it was influenced by Egyptian culture , and at one point around 750 BCE, the Kushite kings actually conquered Egypt and ruled it as the 25th Dynasty, also know as the "Black Pharaohs".

They were wealthy from trade in Gold , Iron , Ivory , and Incense, and Meroe became an important center of Iron production in Africa.

Jebel Barkal and Temple of Amun and Mut:

Jebel Barkal is a small mountain near the town of karima in northen Sudan , it was considered a Sacred site by both the ancient Egyptian and the Kushites

The name "Jebel Barkal " means "Sacred Mountain ".it was believed to be the home of god Amun , one of the most important deities in both Egyptian and Kushite religion.

At the base of the mountain are the temples of Amun and Mut , built and expanded by Egyptian pharaohs like Thutmose ||| and later by Kushites kings (such as Piye and Taharqa). These temples served asa religious and political centers for the kingdom of Kush.The mountain itself has a tall rock pinnacle that ancient people saw as a symbol of the cobra and uraeus representing divine protection and kingship.that's why Jebel Barkal became the spiritual heart of the Kushite kingdom ,where crowned and connected to Amun's divine power.

The pyramids :

The pyramids of Sudan are mainly found in Meroe, Napata, and Nuri all ancient cities of the kingdom of Kush.

Sudan actually has more pyramids than Egypt-over 200 of them!.unlike the Egyptian pyramids , The Kushites built pyramids smaller and steeper, with chapels in front for offerings ,they reflect both Egyptian influence and local Nubian styles and they all built as a royal tombs for the kings ,queens and nobels of the Kushite kingdoms . practiced their own religion mixed with Egyptian elements, and developed a unique writing system called " Meroitic".

The most famous group is at Meroe,which was once the capital of Kush .these pyramids date from about 300 BCE to 350 CE.all of them show the wealth , power and spiritual beliefs of the Kushites civilization and their continued use of pyramid burial long after Egypt stopped building them.

The kingdom eventually weakened due to economic challenges , invasions, and competition with rising powers and by the 4th of century CE, it collapsed.

I manged to collect the references from different sites but most of them were from a series documentory in youtube called "ardalsomor".

Reference photos : Mood Board

As an Environment Artist I created most of the blockout in Blender for the first phase. I always use Blender for my Artwork

Then i did some render photos for my concept art to be able to do my final work in Photoshop.

I am so happy to share this , I hope you like it and I hope that you know more about what going on these days in SUDAN.

Best wishes !!!

#learteschallenge

#leartesstudios