A young Kentake, or Queen of Kush, stands on her palace’s balcony with the scintillating Saharan sun to her back. This scene would take place during the phase of Kushite civilization called the Meroitic period (300 BC to 400 AD), which began when the kingdom’s capital was moved from Napata to Meroe further up the Nile. This period would have been contemporaneous with Ptolemaic rule in Egypt and then the Roman Empire.