North Africa

From the Nile Valley to the Atlas Mountains, a Mediterranean-facing world of pyramids, Punic ports and desert caravans.

7 countries·3 civilizations·4 major empires

Overview

Ancient Egypt endured for three millennia; Carthage rivaled Rome; Berber kingdoms and later Fatimid, Almoravid and Almohad caliphates shaped Islamic civilization.

Historical timeline

c. 3100 – 30 BCEDynastic Egypt
814 – 146 BCECarthage
647 – 1517Islamic conquest and Maghrebi caliphates

Civilizations

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Ancient Egypt

c. 3100 BCE – 30 BCE

Three thousand years of pharaonic civilization along the Nile.

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Carthage

814 – 146 BCE

Phoenician mercantile empire that rivaled Rome.

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Kingdom of Kush

c. 1070 BCE – 350 CE

The Nubian kingdom that ruled Egypt as its 25th Dynasty.

Countries in this region

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Egypt

Cairo · 112 million

One of the world's oldest continuous civilizations, home to the pharaohs, the Nile and 5,000 years of unbroken cultural memory.

Berber Almoravid and Almohad empires, sharifian Alawites and colonial French protectorate.

Homeland of Carthage, Roman Africa Proconsularis and the Aghlabid dynasty.

Numidian kingdom, Ottoman regency, and the birthplace of the FLN independence movement.

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Sudan

Khartoum · 48 million

Ancient Kush and Meroë; Mahdist state and modern instability.

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