[link to www.yare.org]

Scroll down, have a look at the Fortresses that the Egyptians built in upper Nubia. This was to prevent the Nubians(blacks) from entering Egypt.

From these fortresses the Egyptians would also raid Nubia whenever they had a need for more slaves, which was basically all the time.

A record of these raids still exists today in the form of Stellas erected by various pharaohs to document their successes against the Nubians.

Check out these extracts from the link above:

Background Sources

Manetho gives a little information about the eight kings of the 12th Dynasty, but does not mention any activity in the south. Senusret III’s campaigns in Asia and Europe are mentioned, as is the fact that everywhere he erected memorials of his conquest of the tribes. Waddell (1940, p68) points to a stela at Semna with an inscription from his year 16 in which Senusret III pours contempt upon his enemies, the Nubians. This inscription (Lichtheim 1975, pp. 118-120) indicates that the Nubians attacked first, and that Senusret forced them to retreat. A second identical stela was found a little to the north on the island of Uronarti.

An earlier stela from year 8 of Senusret III, also found at Semna, says that all Nubian traffic from the south must halt at Heh; that Nubians wishing to trade at Iken will be permitted to proceed by an overland route; but no river trade north of Heh will be allowed. It is suggested that Heh is Semna and Iken is Mergissa, some 30 miles to the north.

A hymn to Senusret III states "His majesty’s tongue restrains Nubia, His utterances make Asiatics flee." (Lichtheim 1975, p. 198) I interpret this as suggesting that Senusret used diplomacy rather than force to contain the threat from the south. It should be noted here that a string of forts in Sinai protected Egypt from Asiatic incursions.

Strabo, in Geography XVII.i written in about 22AD, tells us that Egypt was from the first disposed to peace, from having resources within itself, and because it was difficult of access to strangers. It was also protected on the north by a harbourless coast and the Egyptian Sea, on the east and west by the desert mountains of Libya and Arabia, as I have said before. The remaining parts towards the south are occupied by Troglodytae, Blemmyae, Nubiae, and Megabarae Ethiopians above Syene. These are nomads, and not numerous nor warlike, but accounted so by the ancients, because frequently, like robbers, they attacked defenceless persons.”

Fig. 1. The Second Cataract Forts. (Adams, 1977, Fig 27)

A 12th Dynasty papyrus sheds some light on life in the fortresses: it contains extracts from dispatches sent from Semna to the commanders of other forts in the area, reporting apparently trivial comings and goings of Nubians in the area, even the movements of herdsmen and their flocks in the desert!

Clayton, 1994, p80, suggests that Senusret I founded the Second Cataract fortresses to control trade in Lower Nubia, from which gold and agricultural products were the main imports.

Grimal, 1992, p168, tells us that there was a long period of military inactivity in Nubia during the reigns of Amenemhet II and Senusret II. The Sudanese tribes had taken advantage of this and advanced gradually north of the Third Cataract. Senusret III therefore took urgent steps to deal with this threat.

Clayton, 1994, p85, tells us that Senusret III (c1878-1841BC) established a separate administration for the Head of the South (Elephantine and Lower Nubia) administered, like Upper and Lower Egypt, by a council of senior staff reporting to a vizier. Obviously great importance was placed on Lower Nubia at this time. A canal was rebuilt around the First Cataract at Aswan enabling easier access for troops and trading vessels to reach as far as Buhen and the Second Cataract. Goods from Upper Nubia and beyond were moved by boat on the Nile. These included ebony, ivory, spices, exotic fruit, live animals and skins. There were mines for gold, diorite and gneiss in the area (Manley, 1996, p19)
History of the forts

In the Old Kingdom, there was an Egyptian colonial town at Buhen. This was surrounded by a massive though crude stone wall (Adams, p170). A main purpose of this town would appear to have been smelting of copper: copper slag, charcoal and gouts of pure copper from the crucibles were found there, near the river’s edge (Drower, 1970, p.17). Almost all the pottery found there was Egyptian, and further evidence from clay seals on jars, bags and papyrus scrolls point to the colony having been supplied from the north, keeping contact by courier. The seals included some from the reigns of Khafre and Menkaure of the 4th Dynasty. Because Buhen is not the best place on this stretch of the Nile for the loading and unloading of ships, Adams suggests that it was the terminus of the desert road leading from the copper mines.

There is evidence of earlier, 2nd dynasty, occupation at Buhen (Drower, 1970, pp. 16-17), and the site remained important right through the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom and up to the reign of Taharqa in the 25th Dynasty.