About a four-hour drive north of Khartoum lies the ancient city of Meroe, which for many years was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush. Like their more famous neighbors to the north (the Egyptians), the Kushites buried their royalty in pyramids to see them into the afterlife with their possessions. Unlike the Egyptians, however, the Kushites didn't construct gargantuan pyramids. Like in Egypt, the Kushite pyramids are a tourist site. Unlike in Egypt, they are not overrun by tourists and civilization. So as someone who's never been to the pyramids before, this past weekend I went with a group of people from the Embassy to camp at the Pyramids of Meroe.
There wasn't much remarkable about the drive up--once we got past the built-up area of Khartoum North, it was a straight shot on one road for several hours to Meroe. The road generally followed the flow of the Nile, and occasionally there was a road that went off into the sandy desert to the east. But in general, we just drove straight. About four hours into the trip, the driver off-roaded, and that's when I realized we arrived at the pyramids. There was technically a small sign pointing towards them--and if I was looking for them, I would have noticed them easily--but there is not much tourist infrastructure around the pyramids (if the limited infrastructure there could even be considered).
I say we went camping there, but it's not like there's a campsite in the middle of the desert. No, instead, we drove for a little bit until we found a place we thought would make a good place to pitch a bunch of tents. As you can tell from the picture to the left, we really did choose a somewhat random spot. [Side Note: The orange tent was the one I slept in.] It was quiet--except for the touts that saw us and drive in and came to try to sell us things and make us ride camels and donkeys--and extremely peaceful, especially when it was just the wind blowing through the tent (more on that later). While close to the pyramids--about a 30 minute walk--it was far enough away that we weren't right on top of the pyramids, which was also nice. And finally, this lovely location put us right next to a beautiful mesa with wonderful panoramic views of the desert, which we hiked up to start the journey.
So after that hike, we finally went to the pyramids, which was a really cool experience. We were able to walk right up to the pyramids, and even into many (most) of their antechambers. Sadly, except for a few that have been restored, all of the pyramids are missing their tops. Why, you ask? Well, blame the Italians. At least that's the story that's told. An Italian found treasure in one of the pyramids, and so he and the crew went and blew off the tops of the rest of them to plunder them. In any case, these pyramids were built between 300 BCE and 350 AD, and even missing their tops, they are spectacular. They have beautiful hieroglyphics inside that look like they should be fake, but really are just well-preserved millenia-old ones. These pyramids may not be as large as the ones in Egypt--or as well-preserved--but they are definitely a sight to behold.
By this point, it was starting to get a bit late; the sun sets around 7:15, and because there's really not very much around, it gets DARK. QUICKLY. Happily for us during the day, there was a lot of cloud cover, which kept the temperature down. Unfortunately for us at night, there was a lot of cloud cover which kept us from being able to see in the moonlight. So after getting back, we got a fire going eventually to cook some dinner, and then we all went to bed.
That orange tent I was staying in wasn't doing so well in the wind, which kept collapsing one side of it, rendering a tent that already was small and looked like it was made for a pet or a small child even smaller. Add on to that that it was hot (lows in the mid-80s) and that the tent was facing the wrong direction for the wind--the air blew into the side of the tent rather than through its vent--and it was an interesting night. It also rained for about 30 minutes around 1am, which actually was welcome because it cooled me off, but it was nevertheless still a nuisance. To top it off, during one of my random wake-ups trying not to get too hot, my mind decided to think, "Hey, if someone wanted to kidnap you, it would be pretty easy given that you're in the middle of nowhere and the wind makes it constantly sound like someone is ripping into your tent." Ever try to sleep after thinking you might get kidnapped? Not so easy.
Added all together, it was a relatively restless night, but it was an absolutely splendid trip to visit one of Sudan's two cultural World Heritage Sites, and I really enjoyed camping in the middle of the desert. I look forward to doing it again with a properly-sized tent when it's cooler!
This song has been played many times on the radio over the last week here in Khartoum, and so I thought I should share it with all of you.
There wasn't much remarkable about the drive up--once we got past the built-up area of Khartoum North, it was a straight shot on one road for several hours to Meroe. The road generally followed the flow of the Nile, and occasionally there was a road that went off into the sandy desert to the east. But in general, we just drove straight. About four hours into the trip, the driver off-roaded, and that's when I realized we arrived at the pyramids. There was technically a small sign pointing towards them--and if I was looking for them, I would have noticed them easily--but there is not much tourist infrastructure around the pyramids (if the limited infrastructure there could even be considered).
I say we went camping there, but it's not like there's a campsite in the middle of the desert. No, instead, we drove for a little bit until we found a place we thought would make a good place to pitch a bunch of tents. As you can tell from the picture to the left, we really did choose a somewhat random spot. [Side Note: The orange tent was the one I slept in.] It was quiet--except for the touts that saw us and drive in and came to try to sell us things and make us ride camels and donkeys--and extremely peaceful, especially when it was just the wind blowing through the tent (more on that later). While close to the pyramids--about a 30 minute walk--it was far enough away that we weren't right on top of the pyramids, which was also nice. And finally, this lovely location put us right next to a beautiful mesa with wonderful panoramic views of the desert, which we hiked up to start the journey.
By this point, it was starting to get a bit late; the sun sets around 7:15, and because there's really not very much around, it gets DARK. QUICKLY. Happily for us during the day, there was a lot of cloud cover, which kept the temperature down. Unfortunately for us at night, there was a lot of cloud cover which kept us from being able to see in the moonlight. So after getting back, we got a fire going eventually to cook some dinner, and then we all went to bed.
That orange tent I was staying in wasn't doing so well in the wind, which kept collapsing one side of it, rendering a tent that already was small and looked like it was made for a pet or a small child even smaller. Add on to that that it was hot (lows in the mid-80s) and that the tent was facing the wrong direction for the wind--the air blew into the side of the tent rather than through its vent--and it was an interesting night. It also rained for about 30 minutes around 1am, which actually was welcome because it cooled me off, but it was nevertheless still a nuisance. To top it off, during one of my random wake-ups trying not to get too hot, my mind decided to think, "Hey, if someone wanted to kidnap you, it would be pretty easy given that you're in the middle of nowhere and the wind makes it constantly sound like someone is ripping into your tent." Ever try to sleep after thinking you might get kidnapped? Not so easy.
Added all together, it was a relatively restless night, but it was an absolutely splendid trip to visit one of Sudan's two cultural World Heritage Sites, and I really enjoyed camping in the middle of the desert. I look forward to doing it again with a properly-sized tent when it's cooler!
This song has been played many times on the radio over the last week here in Khartoum, and so I thought I should share it with all of you.
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