Nabta Playa was once a large endorheic basin (a temporary lake, or "playa") in the Nubian Desert, located approximately 800 kilometers south of modern-day Cairo or about 100 kilometers west of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, 22.51° north, 30.73° east. Today the region is characterized by numerous archaeological sites. The Nabta Playa archaeological site, one of the earliest of the Nubian Neolithic Period, is dated to circa 7500 BC.

Although today the western Egyptian desert is totally dry, this was not always the case. There is good evidence that there were several humid periods in the past (when up to 500 mm of rain would fall per year), including during the last interglacial and early last glaciation periods which stretched between 130,000 and 70,000 years ago, with the most recent one being the African humid period from around 15,000 to 6,000 years ago. During these times, the area was a savanna and supported numerous animals such as extinct buffalo and large giraffes, varieties of antelope and gazelle. Beginning around the 10th millennium BC, this region of the Nubian Desert began to receive more rainfall, filling a lake. Early people may have been attracted to the region due to the source of water.

Archaeological findings indicate the presence of small seasonal camps in the region dating to the 9th–8th millennia BC. Fred Wendorf, the site's discoverer, and ethno-linguist Christopher Ehret have suggested that the people who occupied this region at that time may have been early pastoralists, or like the Saami practiced semi-pastoralism. This is disputed by other sources as the cattle remains found at Nabta have been shown to be morphologically wild in several studies, and hunter-gatherers at the nearby Saharan site of Uan Afada in Libya were penning wild Barbary sheep, an animal that was never domesticated. According to Michael Brass (2018) early cattle remains from Nabta Playa were wild hunted aurochs, whilst domesticated cattle were introduced to northeast Africa in the late 7th millennium BC, originating from cattle domesticated in the Euphrates valley.

Larger settlements began to appear at Nabta Playa by the 7th millennium BC, relying on deep wells for sources of water. Small huts were constructed in straight rows. Sustenance included wild plants, such as legumes, millets, sorghum, tubers, and fruit. Around 6800 BC they began to make pottery locally. In the late 7th millennium BC goats and sheep, apparently imported from Western Asia, appear. Many large hearths also appear.

Early pottery from the Nabta Playa-Bir Kiseiba area has characteristics unlike pottery from surrounding regions. This is followed by pottery with characteristics found only in the Western Desert. Later pottery from c. 5500 BC (Al Jerar phase) has similarities with pottery from the Sudanese region. Pottery decorations included complex patterns of impressions applied with a comb in a rocking motion.

Some researchers, including Christopher Ehret, have suggested a Nilo-Saharan linguistic affinity for the Nabta people. In a more recent publication, Ehret argued that the material cultural indicators correspond with the conclusion that the inhabitants of the wider Nabta Playa region were a Nilo-Saharan-speaking population.

Egyptian historian H. A. A. Ibrahim examined the megalithic complex of Nabta Playa, Upper Egypt to understand the cultural and population influences of the Holocene on pre-dynastic Egypt. She cited an anthropological study confirming the appearance of a Sub-Saharan high status child in a ceremonial center and concluded that the megalithic structures had close resemblance to comparable structures in the Sahelian and Sub-Saharan regions of Africa.

Archaeological discoveries reveal that these New Stone Age peoples seem to have lived more organized lives than their contemporaries nearer to and in the Nile Valley. The people of Nabta Playa had villages with 'planned' layouts, with deep wells that held water year-round.