Egypt

Sudan's land of 'black pharaohs' a trove for archaeologists

expatica.com

There is not a tourist in sight as the sun sets over sand-swept pyramids at Meroe, but archaeologists say the Nubian Desert of northern Sudan holds mysteries to rival ancient Egypt.

"There is a magic beauty about these sites that is heightened by the privilege of being able to admire them alone, with the pyramids, the dunes and the sun," says Guillemette Andreu, head of antiquities at Paris' Louvre museum.

"It really sets them apart from the Egyptian pyramids, whose beauty is slightly overshadowed by the tourist crowds."

Meroe lies around 200 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Sudan's capital Khartoum and was the last capital of Kush, also called Nubia, an ancient kingdom centered on the confluence of the Blue Nile, the White Nile and the River Atbara.

Kush was one of the earliest civilisations in the Nile valley and, at first, was dominated by Egypt. The Nubians eventually gained their independence and, at the height of their power, they turned the table on Egypt and conquered it in the 8th century BC.

They occupied the entire Nile valley for a century before being forced back into what is now Sudan.

At the end of March, the Louvre will host its first exhibition on the Meroe dynasty, the last in a line of "black pharaohs" that ruled Kush for more than 1,000 years until the kingdom's demise in 350 AD.

- Remains Of Anicent Palace Discovered In Meroe
LiveScience (Owen Jarus) Hidden beneath an ancient palace in what is now central Sudan, archaeologists have discovered the oldest building in the city of Meroë, a structure that also may have housed royalty. The capital of a vast empire that flourished...

- Island Of Meroe Added To World Heritage List
UNCESCO With photo. The Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe, a semi-desert landscape between the Nile and Atbara rivers, was the heartland of the Kingdom of Kush, a major power from the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. The property consists...

- The Mysteries Of Meroe
New York Times (Souren Melikian) Agatha Christie could have invented the story. Imagine another Egypt, with a marked black African component. This is Meroe, in present-day Sudan. In art, ancient Egyptian deities appear alongside others, unknown elsewhere....

- Exhibition: The Great African Meroë Empire At The Louvre
afrik.com (Shahinez Benabed) With Meroitic timeline. Meroë is one of the great kingdoms of ancient Sudan. Perched next to it was Egypt, another, great kingdom. For several centuries, especially the late period and during the reign of Cleopatra, Meroë...

- Travel: Secret Of The Nile (nubia)
The National “The road is tough,” Aiyman, my 30-year-old driver, said with a grin, as we hammered over another bump on a dirt track on the southern edge of the Saharan desert. I’m not sure what he was grinning at, except possibly the ridiculousness...

Egypt