Far from the gold and splendor usually associated with the pharaohs, she tells, from Wednesday, how in the 8th century BC, after the Ramses dynasty, sovereigns of the kingdom of Kush, in the heart of present-day Sudan, reconquered the Nile Valley and reunited "the two lands": Egypt and their kingdom, all steeped in pharaonic art, ideology and religion.

Granite statues of the god Amun in the form of a ram protecting Amenhotep III, sphinxes and goddesses, amulets and rare bronze objects from the collections of the Louvre and other major museums around the world are presented throughout a chronological course.

Statues at the "Pharaohs of the Two Lands" exhibition at the Louvre Museum on April 26, 2022 in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

Several are from archaeological digs in recent years in the region.

This route, also dedicated to the expeditions of the pioneers of archeology in the region, is loaded with historical and geographical landmarks.

Statues at the "Pharaohs of the Two Lands" exhibition at the Louvre Museum on April 26, 2022 in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

Around 720 BC, the first king of the kingdom of Kush, Piânkhy, left Napata, the capital located near the "Pure Mountain", the Djebel Barkal, to conquer the north of the valley and Egypt.

His successors create a kingdom of two lands by unifying Egypt and the country of Kush.

They founded the 25th dynasty, known as Kushite, which reigned until 655 BC over an immense territory extending from the Nile delta to the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile.

The exhibition retraces the epic of this conquest of the whole valley and the reign of the most famous of these kings, Taharqa, mentioned in the Bible, as well as the defeat of the last pharaoh of the 25th dynasty, Tanwetamani, before the Assyrians.

A statue at the "Pharaohs of the Two Lands" exhibition at the Louvre Museum on April 26, 2022 in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

At the heart of this complex journey, two cities hold the attention: Memphis, real port of Egypt, economic, administrative and strategic capital from where the pharaoh reigns, and Thebes, temple of the god Amon, religious and political capital that compete for several powers and where the eldest daughters of the pharaohs will take over from their father.

Baptized "divine worshipers" or "high priestesses", their mission "to awaken the god to his mission of maintaining order", according to Vincent Rondot, curator of the exhibition.

Statues at the "Pharaohs of the Two Lands" exhibition at the Louvre Museum on April 26, 2022 in Paris STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

One of the originalities of the exhibition is the imaginary reconstruction of statues representing five pharaohs of the Kushite era, the remains of which were discovered in 2003 in a pit, and which have been recreated according to the hypotheses of archaeologists.

© 2022 AFP