Pyramids of Meroë: The Royal Cemetery of Kush in Sudan

The pyramids of Meroë are the royal tombs of the Kingdom of Kush, standing on low desert ridges near the River Nile in Sudan, about 200 kilometres north-east of Khartoum. From around 300 BC until the 4th century AD, Kushite kings, queens and nobles were buried beneath these steep-sided sandstone pyramids. With around 200 pyramids in its cemeteries, Meroë is the largest pyramid field in Africa outside Egypt and a powerful reminder of a major ancient African civilisation.

Background: Kush and the pyramid tradition

The Kingdom of Kush grew up in Nubia, the land along the middle Nile south of Egypt; see our overview of the Kingdom of Kush. Nubian states had existed for thousands of years, and Kush had long been in contact with Egypt through trade, war and periods of Egyptian occupation.

In the 8th century BC the Kushite kings, ruling from Napata near the Fourth Cataract of the Nile, conquered Egypt and ruled it as its 25th Dynasty. They adopted many Egyptian traditions, including the worship of Amun and the pyramid as a royal tomb. King Piye (c. 744–714 BC) was buried under a pyramid at El-Kurru, reviving a form of burial that Egyptian kings had abandoned centuries earlier. His successor Taharqa built the largest Nubian pyramid at Nuri.

After the Kushites were driven out of Egypt in the 7th century BC, the kingdom continued in Nubia. Royal burials remained in the Napata region for several centuries, while Meroë, much further south, grew in importance as a royal residence and economic centre.

The move to Meroë

Around 300 BC, royal burials shifted from the Napata region to Meroë. The reasons are debated. Meroë lay in a region with more rainfall, good grazing land and access to trade routes to the Red Sea and the interior of Africa. It also had rich iron ore and timber for fuel. The move may also reflect a change of dynasty or a shift of power away from the priesthood of Amun at Napata.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the 1st century BC, told a story about a king called Ergamenes who, educated in Greek philosophy, defied the priests who claimed the right to order a king’s death. Ergamenes is often identified with Arkamani I (Arakamani), who reigned in the early 3rd century BC and is usually regarded as the first king buried at Meroë, in the South Cemetery. Historians treat the story with caution, but it may preserve a memory of a political break.

From then on, the period of Kushite history from about 300 BC to AD 350 is often called the Meroitic period, after the city.

The cemeteries

The pyramids stand in three main groups on the edge of the desert east of the town of Meroë, near the modern village of Begrawiya (also spelled Bagrawiya).

• The South Cemetery contains early royal pyramids and many burials of nobles, some predating the move of the royal tombs.
• The North Cemetery became the main royal burial ground from the mid-3rd century BC. It holds about 40 pyramids of kings and queens, and is the group most visitors see today.
• The West Cemetery contains several hundred burials, mostly of lesser members of the royal family and the elite.

Altogether, archaeologists count roughly 200 pyramids at Meroë, though many survive only as low stumps.

How the pyramids were built

Meroitic pyramids are very different from the famous pyramids of Giza. They are much smaller, the largest reaching around 30 metres, compared with about 146 metres originally for the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Their sides are steep, often at angles of around 70 degrees, which gives them their slender appearance.

The pyramids were built of local sandstone blocks around a rubble core. Many had a smooth plaster coating and some were decorated with painted designs. On the east side of most pyramids stood a small offering chapel with a gateway shaped like an Egyptian temple pylon. Its walls were carved with scenes of the dead ruler, often seated before deities such as Isis and Osiris, and with prayers for offerings.

Unlike Egyptian pyramids, where burial chambers could lie inside the structure, the Meroitic burial chambers were cut into the bedrock beneath the pyramid. They were reached by a long sloping staircase from the east, which was filled in after the funeral. Rulers were buried with jewellery, weapons, imported bronze and glass vessels, and sometimes sacrificed attendants and animals.

Builders may have used a simple lifting device, a shaduf-like wooden crane, to raise blocks. Archaeologists have found evidence suggesting a central pole was used during construction, though methods probably varied.

Queens, writing and culture

One remarkable feature of Meroë is the number of powerful women buried there. The title kandake (often written “Candace” by Greek and Roman writers) was used for royal women, some of whom ruled in their own right. Pyramids in the North Cemetery belong to several such queens.

Queen Amanirenas led Kush in war against Roman Egypt between about 25 and 21 BC, after Kushite forces attacked Roman positions near Aswan. The conflict ended in a treaty favourable to Kush. A bronze head from a statue of the emperor Augustus, probably taken in this war, was found buried beneath a temple step at Meroë in 1910 and is now in the British Museum.

Queen Amanishakheto, who ruled around the late 1st century BC or early 1st century AD, built one of the largest pyramids in the North Cemetery, known today as Beg. N6. Its fate in the 19th century made it famous.

The Meroites developed their own script by about the 2nd century BC, with both hieroglyphic and cursive forms. Inscriptions in Meroitic appear on chapel walls and offering tables. The British scholar Francis Llewellyn Griffith worked out the sound values of the script in 1909, so it can be read aloud, but the Meroitic language is still only partly understood.

Meroë itself was a large town with palaces, temples, baths and iron-working areas whose slag heaps are still visible. Religion combined Egyptian gods with local deities such as the lion-headed Apedemak.

Exploration and looting

European travellers began to visit Meroë in the early 19th century. The French mineralogist Frédéric Cailliaud reached the pyramids in 1821 and published detailed drawings in his account of the journey, giving Europe its first view of the site.

In 1834 the Italian adventurer Giuseppe Ferlini, a former army doctor, came to Meroë in search of treasure. He broke open the top of several pyramids. In the pyramid of Queen Amanishakheto he found a hoard of gold jewellery, including rings, armlets and amulets. Ferlini later sold most of the treasure to museums in Munich and Berlin, where it remains. Accounts often credit him with damaging or demolishing some 40 pyramids, although the exact number is uncertain. The success of his search encouraged later treasure hunters, and many pyramids lost their tops.

The Prussian expedition led by Karl Richard Lepsius recorded the site in 1844 and took some carved reliefs to Berlin. Systematic excavation began in the 20th century: the American archaeologist George Reisner excavated the royal cemeteries between 1920 and 1923, establishing the order of the Meroitic rulers that historians still use as a basis. Since the late 20th century, some chapels and pyramid faces have been restored.

Decline

From the 3rd century AD the Kingdom of Kush weakened. Trade routes shifted towards the Red Sea and the rising kingdom of Aksum in Ethiopia. Pyramids became smaller and burials poorer. Around AD 350, an inscription of the Aksumite king Ezana describes a campaign along the Nile that reached the region of Meroë. By then the kingdom had largely broken up, and the last royal pyramids were built in the mid-4th century; see the fall of Meroë.

By the numbers

Timeline

• c. 744–714 BC: Reign of Piye, buried under a pyramid at El-Kurru, reviving royal pyramid burial.
• c. 690–664 BC: Reign of Taharqa, who builds the largest Nubian pyramid at Nuri.
• c. 300 BC: Royal burials move from Napata to Meroë; Arkamani I is usually named as the first king buried there.
• c. 25–21 BC: Queen Amanirenas leads Kush in war against Roman Egypt.
• c. AD 350: Last royal pyramids built as the kingdom declines; Aksumite campaign under Ezana.
• 1821: Frédéric Cailliaud visits and draws the pyramids.
• 1834: Giuseppe Ferlini breaks open pyramids and finds the gold of Amanishakheto.
• 1920–1923: George Reisner excavates the royal cemeteries.
• 2011: The Island of Meroe is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Why it matters

The pyramids of Meroë show that one of the great traditions of the ancient world was not only Egyptian but also African in a wider sense, continued and transformed by Kush for centuries after Egypt abandoned it. They preserve the memory of a kingdom with its own script, gods, iron industry and ruling queens. Their damaged tops are also a lasting lesson in the harm done by treasure hunting, and why careful, documented archaeology matters.