The Hyskos brought the first horses to Egypt about 1700 BCE. Immediately the Egyptians learned to use them and brought them to Nubia.
By about 750 BCE the Nubians were famous horse-breeders and trainers, and many foreign kings wanted Nubian horses and their grooms. The Nubian kings greatly loved horses, for King Piankhy writes in one of his inscriptions of the anger he felt in Egypt when he found one prince who had allowed his horses to go hungry. In his temple at Napata, he had several walls carved with processions of horses he had received as gifts from the rulers of Egypt.
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| Drawing of horses carved on the wall of the Great Temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal during the reign of King Piankhy. |
| Drawing by T. Kendall and S. Osgood. |
Piankhy and some of the later kings of Kush even wanted to bring their horses with them to the afterlife. Many of their tombs have horses buried in them or beside them.
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| Graves of the horses of the Kushite kings of Dynasty 25 at El-Kurru, Sudan, after excavation in 1918 by the Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Expedition. |
| Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. |
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| Cross-section of one of the horse graves at El-Kurru, Sudan, revealing that the horses were buried standing up. Their heads would have been covered by a low mound. |
| Drawing by Michelle Wilson. |