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Published: February 21st 2011
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I don't really remember the finer details, but the assignment - for my ninth-grade biology class, of all things - was to write a research paper on the impact of the environment on history. Being the nerdish student that I was, I of course wanted to find a topic of some obscurity. I somehow decided to tackle the decline of Kush, knowing next to nothing about the mysterious kingdom that had emerged along the Nile south of Egypt. But the photographs I found of the steeply pitched pyramids of ancient Meroë (pron. "mer-o-way")*, one of the Kushite capitals, intrigued me. I couldn't begin to tell you what my thesis was (something about desertification, I think), but I know that researching and writing that paper was what first put Sudan on my travel "radar" screen.
Since moving to Sudan in August of 2010, I have been chomping at the bit to get up to Meroë. If one looks at the map, it is not so far from Khartoum - not even 200km away, along (mostly) paved road. In a "normal" world, it would
be an easy 2.5 hour drive. One might think it would make for an easy day trip, easily accomplished during a quiet weekend (especially once the weather turned from ferociously hot to simply hot) But nothing is ever that straightforward in Sudan. First, one needs permits, both to leave Khartoum and to visit the permits; then there are the five - or more - checkpoints that punctuate the 200km to the pyramids. Thankfully, I went as part of a KAS faculty excursion, so the school organized (and paid for) all the necessary documents; we just had to board the bus and go. But with the checkpoints, the trip easily took 5 hours each way - so it was a good thing we were spending the night!
Shortly after the last checkpoint, we spotted the tightly clustered pyramids of the Northern Cemetery, set on a small plateau hovering above the barren landscape. The buses pulled onto an ill defined track in the sands and headed for the area behind the site, where we found some soft sand on which to pitch our tents (not an easy task in the strong winds whipping across the desert that afternoon!).
I resisted
running right out to the pyramids, although they were tantalizing close, lined up perfectly against the setting sun. Instead, I joined my colleagues on a climb up the hill beside our camp, providing panoramic views of ancient Meroë - the place I had written about so long, long ago. I would be patient; I would wait to the morning - when my colleague, Abby, and I would have the ruins all but to ourselves.
***
The Meroë pyramids might not be as imposing as those at Giza, but what they lack in size they make up for in both number and character. Most people don't realize that there are actually more pyramids (many more) in Sudan than in Egypt - if they knew Sudan had pyramids at all! Just at Meroë, between the two main "cemeteries", there are nearly a hundred in various states of intactness; there are many others scattered along the Nile between Meroë and the Egyptian border, particularly near Karima and Napata. They also look quite different from their Egyptian cousins, being more steeply slanted and with dramatic, out-sized temple-portals. They are also rather oddly clumped, as if real estate had been at a premium.
Some of them are built so close together that their bases touch - great for photo ops of people bridging the pyramidal slopes.
But who built these munchkin-sized pyramids?
The Kingdom of Kush, building on a number of earlier Nile River Valley cultures, emerged in Nubia, or the northern reaches of what is now Sudan, c. 1070 BCE. Nubia had been under Egyptian "colonial" rule for almost 1000 years, but as Egypt's New Kingdom went into political decline the early Kushite leaders were able to establish an independent state. While obviously influenced by their Egyptian neighbors to the north, Kush not only remained independent of Egypt, the kingdom actually grew so powerful that it took over its former occupier in c. 730 BCE and ruled for sixty-years (thus the 25th dynasty of Egypt was actually Kushite). Although the rulers of Kush lost their grip on the upper reaches of the Nile Valley (largely due to invasions by Assyrian armies), they remained independent until well into the new millennium, only winding down sometime around 350 CE.
The capital of Kush had originally been in Napata, in Nubia proper, but shortly after the Kushites withdrew from Egypt (about 600
BCE) the capital was relocated further south to Meroë. Also, by 300 BCE the kings and queens were being buried in Meroë rather than Napata. The Meroitic period of the Kingdom of Kush was one of the high points of Kushite culture - great monuments (like the pyramids) were built; trade flourished, especially that of iron; an alphabetic script based on heiroglyphics to write the native language, Meroitic, was developed. Meroë was one of the most impressive seats of civilization in Africa.
Then it all withered away, gradually getting lost in the ever encroaching sands of the Sahara. The main part of the city is not much more than a trace of stones.
But the pyramids still haunt the landscape.
***
As Abby and I wandered among the ruins of Meroë, the stonework all aglow with the morning light, we felt like the first archaeologists to discover the site. It says something that this place is Sudan's most popular - and iconic - tourist destination, yet even on a weekend there was basically no one else around. We were able to clamber over the pyramids and conduct something of a photo shoot of Abby, who is
trying to get into the Green Bay Packers' Fan Hall of Fame by wearing Packers paraphernalia in this "exotic" locale (the Fan from Sudan!), without a soul disturbing us.
It was just as I had imagined it back in ninth-grade when writing that crazy research paper; to think I finally reached mysterious Meroë!
*To make life a bit confusing, there are actually two "mer-o-ways" - the site of the pyramids I visited, near the modern town of Shendi, and the town of Merowe, near the pyramids at Karima.
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