The Black Pharaoh — Christian Jacq

Five centuries after Ramses, the temples of northern Egypt lie deserted. the gods forgotten. Injustice and corruption reign, and the empire seems to hurtling towards irretrievable ruin.
Only one man, a Nubian, governing his kingdom from the South with wisdom and kindness, rejects this dark destiny. piankhy, ' the living one', the Black pharaoh, has one desire: that the gods should once again dwell in a united Egypt, nurtured by justice and love. But the price to pay is a heavy one for this man of peace: it means confronting the Libyan Tefnakt, an authoritarian, ambitious Northern prince, who is determined to restore order and reign in splendour - by forcing the country to submit to his yoke.
War between the Black Pharaoh and the Libyan prince is inevitable. And the survival of a thousand-year-old empire hangs on the victory of one of these two inflexible wills...Despite his own courage and his wife's magic, is the Black Pharaoh capable of achieving the impossible?