TRAVEL | SUDAN | PYRAMIDS
Sudan Has Pyramids Too
They are small but they are still pretty cool!
In January of 2021, we were still up in Egypt when we learned that Sudan also has its own pyramids. Since it didn’t look like we were going to see Egypt’s pyramids, we were happy to know that we could visit the ones to the south of us.
Traveling down to Sudan by bus is a story all on its own, and I will write it eventually. In fact, we had an interesting start in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city, when we realized on the second day that our debit cards didn’t work in their ATMs. Sudan is not part of the international banking system, and all of the ATMs service only debit cards from each specific bank.
That too is a story all on its own.
After figuring out how to get money (thanks to Western Union), we decided to head out to the coastal city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea. But along the way, we could visit some pyramids, which certainly intrigued us.
We boarded a bus that looked to be taking us on a magic carpet ride. Tassels dangled from the perimeter of the ceiling and the bright fabrics and funky flair made me think we were time traveling back to the sixties with Austin Powers.
The pyramids are located near Shendi and are called the Pyramids of Meroë. Do not go to the town of Meroë as you will be sorely disappointed!
It was a few hours by bus from Khartoum along desolate roads with brown desert stretching for miles in every direction out the windows.
Truly, there was nothing to see!
We spent the night in what we were told is “the only hotel in town” for the equivalent of $30 USD. The staff at the hotel helped us arrange a taxi to take us out to the pyramids the next morning.
Now, I am not a history buff, and admittedly don’t find much interest in the facts of the past, so I didn’t research much about the pyramids. But I had read that an Italian explorer, Giuseppe Ferlini, had blown the tops off of the pyramids back in 1834 looking for treasure. The sad thing is that he even obtained permission to ‘excavate’ the pyramids from the authorities, but then went as far as to use dynamite to access the insides, which I’m sure they didn’t expect.
Such a shame!
As our taxi bumped along the road, I started to see the topless pyramids appear on the horizon.
The pyramids were built by the Nubians, a group that resides in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt between 2700 and 2300 years ago in what was then known as the Kingdom of Kush.
Like in Egypt, they are all tombs of former royalty.
There are over 200 pyramids spread throughout Northern Sudan, but this area is one of the more concentrated ones.
Of course, these pyramids are much smaller than their Egyptian counterparts. They measure just 30–100 feet (9–30 m)tall, which is nothing in comparison to Egypt's 455 ft (139 m) behemoths, but they were interesting and unique all on their own.
The saddest part about these pyramids, though, is that not only have the tops been blown off, they have been subject to centuries of abuse and are all carved and scratched in most places with people's names and all manner of things. They have not been preserved at all like I assume the Egyptian ones have been.
I can’t remember exactly what we paid to get in, but I think it was around $20 USD. We later read that we were to obtain a permit from Khartoum to get in, but we didn’t do that and didn’t have a problem. They do have a ticket station at the arrival point, and an information center with displays in English, plus there are camels to hire if you don’t feel like walking the roughly 300m to the base of the pyramids.
We opted to walk as we had already been on camels in Morocco and weren’t keen to repeat the experience.
Once we reached them, a man quickly joined us to walk with us. We did tip him a bit but he surely didn’t guide us. He simply watched us as we moved around. I’m sure this is an effort to preserve the pyramids and not have more people vandalizing them.
If you want to learn more about the history and information about them, it’s probably best to take a guided tour from Khartoum.
We only spent about an hour wandering around. Sudan is HOT, and these pyramids are exposed and in the middle of nowhere. In fact, they are trying to plant plants around them in an effort to keep the sands back from covering them entirely, which is a constant threat.
In fact, the winds blow so hard that the sand is also scratching the surface of the stones, which have grooves that are getting deeper and deeper over time. You can see evidence of this in the above photo.
All in all, we really appreciated seeing these fabulous structures. My heart broke for their desecration and what could be a national treasure of the country, but it is what it is and we can’t turn back time.
If you are interested, I did make a video of our day at the pyramids of Meroë which you can view below, and I also did a whole series of videos about our 12 weeks in Sudan that you can access here.
Thanks for reading and joining us on our adventure!
Happy travels,
xo Jill
To learn more about the Pyramids of Meroë, Trip Savvy has a good article:
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