Naqa
Illustrations of Naqa from the Lepsius expedition
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 Shown within Sudan
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| Alternate name | Naga'a |
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| Region | Nubia |
| Coordinates | 16°16′10″N 33°16′30″E / 16.26944°N 33.27500°ECoordinates: 16°16′10″N 33°16′30″E / 16.26944°N 33.27500°E |
| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Periods | Kingdom of Kush |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | In ruins |
Naqa or Naga'a (Arabic: النقعة an-Naqʿa) is a ruined ancient city of the Kushitic Kingdom of Meroë in modern-day Sudan. The ancient city lies about 170 km north-east of Khartoum and about 50 km east of the Nile River located at approximately MGRS 36QWC290629877. Here smaller wadis meet the Wadi Awateib coming from the center of the Butana plateau region and further north at Wad ban Naqa from where it joins the Nile. Naqa was only a camel or donkey's journey from the Nile, and could serve as a trading station on the way to the east so had strategic importance.
Naqa is one of the largest ruined sites in the country and indicates an important ancient city once stood in the location. It was one of the centers of the Kingdom of Meroë, which served as a bridge between the Mediterranean world and Africa.
The site has two notable temples, one devoted to Amun and the other to Apedemak which also has a Roman kiosk nearby.
The first European travelers reached Naqa in 1822, including Hermann von Pückler-Muskau in 1837. In 1843, it was visited by Richard Lepsius and his Prussian Egypt-Sudan expedition. He copied some of the inscriptions and representations of the temple standing here. In 1958 a team from Berlin's Humboldt University visited Naqa and documented the temple and restored part of the site along with the nearby site of Musawwarat es Sufra in the 1960s.
Since 1995 Naqa has been excavated by a German-Polish team with the participation of the Egyptian Museum of Berlin and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It is directed by Professor Dietrich Wildung and is financed by the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and also includes Polish archaeologist Professor Lech Krzyżaniak and a small group of Polish archaeologists from Poznań.
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