About 200 kilometers northeast of Sudan’s capital Khartoum, in a valley known as Nubia, are the remains of three ancient Kusнιтi kingdoms. Here you can find the largest concentration of ancient pyramids ever built.
Although less famous than the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt and smaller in size than their Egyptian cousins, the Pyramids of Nubia are no less remarkable.
These pyramids were built around 2500 years ago, long after the Egyptians stopped burying their pharaohs in mᴀssive graves, a practice that almost went bankrupt. The kings of Nubia, however, were clearly fascinated by these grand structures and tried to imitate them.
The Kingdom of Kush flourished for 900 years, from 800 BC to 280 AD, and had power over a vast area that covered much of the Nile Delta and stretched south as far as Khartoum.
Meroe was the capital during the empire’s final phases. Here, in their capital city, the Nubians built about 80 radically reduced pyramids on the tombs of the kings and queens of the Kusнιтe kingdom.
These pyramids range in height from 20 feet (6 meters) to 100 feet (30 meters) and are raised from fairly small bases that rarely exceed 25 feet (7.6 meters), giving the sides of the pyramids very steep angles. One of the largest pyramids built for the rulers of Kush was for a woman, Queen Shanakdakheto (170-150 BC). The sides of the pyramids are decorated with decorative elements of the cultures of Pharaonic Egypt, Greece and Rome.
Overall, the rulers of Kush built more than 250 pyramids, more than twice the pyramids of all of Egypt. They are distributed in a small region in the desert of Sudan.
Like the ancient Egyptians, the kings of Nubia were mummified and buried, covered with jewelry, in wooden coffins, before being buried.
Almost all the pyramids were looted centuries ago.
At the time of their exploration by archaeologists in the 19th and 20th centuries, it was discovered that some pyramids contained remains of arches, arrows, horse harnesses, wooden boxes, furniture, ceramics, stained glᴀss, metal containers and many other artifacts attesting to the vast meritorious trade with Egypt and the Hellenistic world.
Pictures of Sudan’s forgotten Nubian pyramids
Few visitors make the trek out to Sudan’s secluded Nubian pyramids in ancient Meroe, the capital of the Kingdom of Kush.
The Meroe Pyramids are located in the northeast of Sudan, near the banks of the Nile river in an area known as Nubia. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
Bagrawiyah, Sudan – More than 200km from the Sudanese capital Khartoum, the remains of an ancient city rise from the arid and inhospitable terrain like a science-fiction film set. Nestled between sand dunes, the secluded pyramids seem to have been forgotten by the modern world, with no nearby restaurants or H๏τels to cater to tourists.
The Nubian Meroe pyramids, much smaller but just as impressive as the more famous Egyptian ones, are found on the east bank of the Nile river, near a group of villages called Bagrawiyah. The pyramids get their name from the ancient city of Meroe, the capital of the Kingdom of Kush, an ancient African kingdom situated in what is now the Republic of Sudan.
Around 1000 BCE, after the fall of the 24th Egyptian dynasty, the Nubian Kingdom of Kush arose as the leading power in the middle Nile region. The Kusнιтe kings took over and ruled much of Egypt from 712 to 657 BCE. In 300 BCE, when the capital and royal burial ground of the kingdom moved to the Meroe region, the pharaonic tradition of building pyramids to encapsulate the tombs of rulers continued here.
Royal pyramids were built in Nubia approximately 800 years after the Egyptians stopped building their pyramids. More than 50 ancient pyramids and royal tombs rise out of the desert sands at Meroe. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
The Nubian Meroe pyramids are the best preserved of the more than 220 pyramids in Sudan. They are the burial sites for more than 40 Nubian kings and queens of the Kush kingdom. [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]
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