I visited the Nubian Pyramids of Meroe, Sudan, in 2015, as part of my 7-month, 19,000 km overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town.
This is Meroë, which was the ancient capital of the Kushite Kingdom, in Sudan’s Nile Valley.
This post is from my travels in Africa in 2015/2016, when I travelled overland from Cairo to Cape Town
The Nubian Pyramids here are class, but often overshadowed by those in Egypt.
The most notable difference between those here in Sudan and those in Giza is in size and pitch. The largest pyramid at Meroe is just under 30 metres high (or would have been, were it still intact) with an angle approaching 70°, whereas the Great Pyramid of Giza (Pyramid of Khufu) was almost 150 metres high with an angle of 52°.
The smaller size allowed the pyramids to be constructed much faster and with less manpower, using simple cranes. Tomb chambers were dug directly into the rock below and the pyramid then erected above – a marked difference to Egypt, where the tomb is enclosed in the body of the pyramid. The pyramids have a rubble core encased in local sandstone (or brick towards the end of the Kushite period).
The pyramids were then covered with a render of lime mortar to give a smooth gleaming surface, and the bases were simply painted in red, yellow and blue stars.
On the eastern face, each pyramid has a funerary chapel where offerings could be made to the dead.
Visiting the Meroe Pyramids
In the weak early morning light, I was heading to the bus station. I was shown the bus to Atbara. Within 20 minutes, we were rolling out of town.
At Shendi, 40km from Meroe, a coffee break. Fellow passengers invited me to join them. Sweet coffee, oh, I love this coffee here. They speak great English in Sudan, police officials accepted, and I was told that there was accommodation just south of the Meroe Pyramids. Which is where the bus driver dropped me off.
I was shown a room, then rested a while in the dark interior of the on-site cafeteria, before walking up the highway to backpack the Meroe Pyramids.
Most of the pyramids have been decapitated. Their sorry state is largely the work of an Italian treasure hunter, Giuseppe Ferlini, who passed through in 1834. Ferlini was convinced that the pyramids contained great riches and proceeded to pull them down. He struck gold on his first attempt.
Later, I dined in the cafeteria, sharing a conversation with some other travellers.
Onwards to Port Sudan
Days end and I consider the next few days.
Tomorrow I will stand on the side of the road and wait for any vehicle going north, hoping for a ride, free or otherwise.
Atbara is around 100km away and then Port Sudan, another 500. I should manage that in a day, the roads here are smooth and straight thanks to the Chinese who have paved most of Sudan. They are waiting for the situation in South Sudan to improve and then they will move in and extract all the rich pickings there, connected with super-fast roads, straight from the mines to Port Sudan and a cargo boat to China.
In the end, it turned out to be quite a mission. I waited ages for a ride, a slow minivan to some other town, going off into the sands to avoid the police roadblocks, and then another minivan to Atbara, followed by a 15-minute walk, and more than an hour wait for the big bus. More roadblocks.
As dusk fell, I felt anxious. We were still more than 2 hours from Port Sudan. I hate arriving anywhere at night.
On arrival in Port Sudan, I was frog-marched into a small office within the bus station compound, where my details were taken. In Khartoum, I had hastily added a few more place names onto my travel permit before leaving it in the sun for a bit to lighten the ink, and I am pleased to say, it passed its first test.
They were friendly but I was dog-tired and just not in the mood for endless questions about my motives for journeying all the way out here.
I headed into town, stopping at one place marked on Google Maps but the price was 25 USD a night. A place across the road was full and then near the market, a 3-bedded room, just for me. Costing just a couple of dollars, it’s not very luxurious. In fact, it is decrepit as they come but I shake the sheet, string my mozzie net up and suddenly the room becomes my home for 2 nights.
Mileage in Africa, so far: 5159km.