Nubia, a region of Africa in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It extends southward from Aswan, Egypt, to Khartoum. Except along the Nile's course, the region is mostly desert. The people are mostly Arabic-speaking. In ancient times Nubia had valuable gold mines. Much of the area was controlled by Egypt until the rise of the Nubian kingdom of Kush sometime after 1000 B.C. A Christian Nubian kingdom was conquered by the Muslims of Egypt in the 1300's.
The Aswan Dam, completed in 1970, created a reservoir that permanently flooded portions of the Nile Valley, submerging important archeological sites in Nubia.
