District of Upper Nubia on the Dongola reach of the Nile, southwest of the fourth cataract, which has given its name to the Napatan period. The district includes the sites of Kurru, Gebel Barkal, Nuri, and Sanam. Napata was settled in the mid-15th century BC as a southern outpost of the Egyptian empire, the seat of a kingdom (called Kush by the Egyptians) to which it gives its name. It flourished from the late 9th-early 3rd centuries BC. Napata's main feature, the hill of Barkol, was regarded from the Egyptian New Kingdom (1521-1075 BC) as a holy mountain, the seat of the god Amon; under it lie the ruins of several temples. A stela of Thutmose III (reigned 1479-1425), on which a fort is mentioned, has been found there, and Amenhotep II (reigned c 1426-1400 BC) sent an Asian prisoner to be hanged on its walls.