“The economic decline [of Kush] may have been hastened by overgrazing of the land and by the progressive desiccation of the Butana. But the most serious threat came from Axum, a kingdom that rose to power in the highlands of Ethiopia to the southeast. . . . Axum challenged Kush’s monopoly of trade in the African interior. The two inevitably clashed, and Axumites, on the offensive, carried the battles into the Butana. But by the time the Axumite king Aezanas marched into Kush around A. D. 350, its monarchy apparently no longer existed. A detailed Axumite inscription makes no mention of the Meroites, but does refer to the Noba, a people who were known to have harrassed the Meroites from the west bank of the Nile. So the final downfall of the Kingdom of Kush is veiled in almost complete darkness.” —William Y. Adams, archaeologist, as quoted in Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World The causes of the final downfall of Kush are a. well known. c. mysterious. b. detailed. d. unusual.