Note 897 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

There is great difficulty in determining the true position of Napata, as our author places it much farther north than Pliny; and there is reason for supposing that it is the designation of a royal residence, which might be moveable, rather than of a fixed locality. Ritter brings Napata as far north as Primis and the ruins at Ipsambul, while Mannert, Ukert, and other geographers, believe it to have been Merawe, on the farthest northern point of the region of Meroë. It is, however, generally placed at the east extremity of that great bend of the Nile which skirts the desert of Bahiouda, and near Mount Birkel. Among the ruins which probably cover the site of the ancient Napata are two lions of red granite, one bearing the name of Amuneph III., the other Amuntuonch. They were brought to England by Lord Prudhoe, and now stand at the entrance of the Gallery of Antiquities in the British Museum. See Smith’s Dict., art. Napata.