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The Beja, or Bedawiye, people speaking the Northern Cushitic language called “Bedawiet”, have literally since “time immemorial” occupied the Eastern deserts of Sudan, Egypt and possibly Eritrea. They today consist of the subgroups Ababda, Bishariin, Atmaan/Amar´ar, Hadendowa and sections of the Beni Amer. These subgroups are relatively loosely integrated confederations of endogamous lineages based on assumptions of shared descent and cohabitation in an ancestral territory. In this hot and arid land, where there is little evidence of large-scale climatic change the last 2500 years, they have eked out a livelihood presumably originally as hunters of wild game and gatherers of wild grain, later as herders of small stock in the drier areas and of cattle in the delta lands, combining pastoralism with some take-a-chance cultivation. Some centuries after Christ they also acquired camels and became mounted brigands, guides and sycesin relation to the caravan trade. The present paper is an attempt to trace what can be said about the way larger context of empires, trade routes and security impinged on their lives in pre-colonial times.

The Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology, founded in 1984, is a component of the Department of Art of The University of Memphis, in Memphis, Tennessee (USA), and is a Tennessee Center of Excellence. It is dedicated to the study of the art and culture of ancient Egypt through teaching, research, exhibition, and community education. As part of its research and teaching objectives, the Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology, (hereafter IEAA), is engaged with various field projects in Egypt. Currently, the IEAA conducts an epigraphic survey in the Great Hypostyle Hall of Karnak Temple in Luxor, Egypt, sponsors an excavation in the Valley of the Kings at the tomb of Pharaoh Amenmesse, and partners with the Italian Archaeological Mission at the tomb of Harwa at Thebes.

Writing an introduction to ancient Egypt temples is considerably more difficult then examining any specific structure, for a number of different reasons. First of all, the term "temple" is misleading, and secondly, the term covers a huge variety of different structures that evolved over such a vast period of time that many people have a difficulty comprehending just how long a time this period spans. The Ramessuem on the West Bank at Luxor (Ancient Thebes)For example, think of the Roman Coliseum (in Rome). It is almost 2,000 years old, and most of us would think of it as very ancient. Yet, when the Romans first came to Egypt, they were awe struck by Egyptian temples, some of which at that time were already more ancient to the Romans, then the Roman Coliseum is to us.