Meroe
Where?
Sudan – 200 kilometers north of Khartoum, near the town of Begrawiya
How to get?
It’s the best to get there by rental car with a driver arranged by a hotel in Khartoum, for example the “Bougainvilla” guesthouse. The cost of a trip for 1 day is about 200 USD (together with other places – Naqa and Musawarat). The hotel also arranges the necessary travel and photo permission.
Admission costs 52 SDG (about 3.50 USD) – you can pay on the spot (you had to pay in Khartoum before).
Why?
In Meroe there was a necropolis of Kushite kings and dignitaries – former rulers of the Kush kingdom – ruling here from the 3rd century BC until the 4th century AD
Under the influence of the Egyptians, the tombs of kings (about 100 of them survived) were built in the form of conical pyramids. In the 4th century AD the whole place has been abandoned and it is not clear why – perhaps iron (the main product) production has stopped or this place has ceased to be on the main trade routes.
The place was rediscovered by archaeologists in the nineteenth century – then also the Italian treasure hunter Giuseppe Ferlini destroyed the tops of the pyramids to bring out the objects inside (including jewellery).
This place is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The Meroe pyramids are different from the Egyptian ones – they are lower (up to 30 meters), steeper and you can not enter them. The most interesting are chambers adjacent to the pyramids with hieroglyphs and reliefs of the gods
Some pyramids are left alone – some are slowly collapsing, deteriorating, or are slowly being buried by sand. There is no infrastructure there – hotels, restaurants or even marked paths – one goes through the desert and climbs the dunes to reach the next groups of pyramids. Sometimes the camel owner will offer us a ride to the next pyramids and it will be one of the few people we will see on this day in this place. We can be almost alone there all the time and we can feel like archaeologists who discovered this place in the 19th century.
