The Pyramids of Meroe at Begrawiya — Burial Ground of the Kings of Kush

About two hundred kilometers northeast of Khartoum, near the village of Begrawiya between the Nile and Atbara rivers, the Pyramids of Meroe rise above low hills. This royal cemetery was the burial ground of the Kingdom of Kush, the great power of the ancient world from the eighth century BC until the fourth century AD, according to UNESCO.

The pyramids are distributed across three cemeteries: the northern, southern and western, and comprise — according to UNESCO — more than two hundred pyramids. Beneath them were buried the kings of Kush, its queens and senior state officials between roughly the third century BC and the fourth century AD, and the oldest pyramid securely attributed to a ruler is that of Arkamani (Ergamenes) around 280 BC.

The Kushite pyramids are distinguished from the Egyptian ones by steeper faces (between 60 and 70 degrees) and smaller sizes (their height between 10 and 30 meters). They are a solid memorial monument with no internal chambers, built above underground burial rooms completely independently of them, with an outer casing of sandstone over a core of rubble, and small temples attached on the eastern side for presenting offerings.

UNESCO inscribed the "Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe" on the World Heritage List in 2011. The pyramids and temples of Meroe bear witness to the interaction of the civilizations of the Pharaohs and the Mediterranean with sub-Saharan Africa, and the city of Meroe also contained an iron industry for which it was famous.

In the nineteenth century the pyramids suffered grave destruction at the hands of European treasure hunters who blew up dozens of them with dynamite. Today, with maintenance work halted since the outbreak of war in April 2023, archaeologists warn of serious deterioration due to the accumulation of sand and salts threatening the archaeological inscriptions themselves (Associated Press, August 2026).

📚 Sources: UNESCO — World Heritage List and Decision 35 COM 8B.22 (whc.unesco.org); npj Heritage Science study on sand movement and flood risks to the Meroe pyramids (Nature, 2023); Associated Press — report on war threats to the pyramids (August 2026) — Editorial Team