Where to Travel in SUDAN 

Almost one hundred curiously steep sided pyramids protrude from amongst the yellow sand dunes into a dramatic desert landscape at Meroe. This spellbinding site is the number one attraction in the Republic of Sudan. Once the capital of a kingdom that ruled much of northern Sudan for 700 years (350 BC to 350 AD), Meroe’s necropolises along with the scant remains of its Royal City were built by the rulers of the little known Kingdom of Kush. Unlike the pyramids of Egypt’s Old Kingdom (which have slides sloping at an angle of 52°) Meroe’s pyramids are often angled at 60°,65° and sometimes 73° giving them a tall and slender appearance - although all have been ‘decapitated’ by early ‘archaeologists’ searching for treasure. Each pyramid originally had its own East facing funerary chapel with walls that were fully decorated by bass-relief showing the occupant’s deeds and their offerings to the gods. A structurally independent burial chamber was carved into the rock below each pyramid. As we have not yet been able to decipher the script of Meroe much of what we  know of the late Kushite period is derived from interpreting the surviving monuments here along with those of Naga and Musawwarat es-Sufra in the inland semi-arid desert Butana region.