Approach to the Fortress of Ibrim Nubia.gif Nubia is located in today's southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Ancient Nubia was a land of great natural wealth, of gold mines, ebony, ivory and incense; and a flourishing slave trade. This is the homeland of Africa's earliest black culture with a history which can be traced from 3100 BC onward. Nubia is believed to have served as a trade corridor between Egypt and tropical Africa long before 3100 BC. Egyptian craftsmen of the period used ivory and ebony wood from tropical Africa which came through Nubia.