Africa's forgotten pyramids — 200 Kushite burial mounds in the Sudanese desert, sharper and older than anything at Giza
Meroë (Mérawi) was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush from around 300 BCE to 350 CE — the longest-lasting and most powerful ancient African civilisation, which ruled Egypt as the 25th Dynasty and competed as equals with the Roman Empire. The royal necropolis at Meroë contains over 200 pyramid tombs built for Kushite kings and queens (kandakes), more in number than all the pyramids of Egypt combined, though narrower and steeper in profile (70° slopes versus Egypt's 52°) and standing 20–30m tall. They rise from flat desert sand in three clusters (North, South, and West cemeteries) with no fence…
The Kushite civilisation centred at Meroë produced a distinct writing system (Meroitic script, deciphered as to its sounds in 1909 but its language still largely untranslated) and a material culture that absorbed and transformed Egyptian, Greek, and Roman influences without losing its distinctly African character. The kandakes (queen regents) of Meroë were among the ancient world's most powerful female rulers — Amanirenas (40–10 BCE) repelled a Roman invasion and negotiated a peace with Augustus Caesar that restored Kushite border territories. The collapse of the Meroitic state around 350 CE,…