The Kentake (Queen) of Kush goes on a ride across the Sudanese desert atop her royal elephant. Ever since I found out that the ancient Kushites may have trained and ridden war elephants (as suggested by the discovery of a possible elephant stable at the Kushite archaeological site of Musawwart es-Sufta), I’ve fancied the mental image of Kushite rulers going about on their own royal elephants. Considering that African bush elephants are larger than the Indian elephants used by the Asian and Middle Eastern civilizations, they must have ranked among the most fearsome mounted units ever fielded by an ancient army!