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Mythology recounted that the dying or setting
sun travelled through the underworld in its journey towards the
east where it was to be reborn at the dawn of the day. From time
immemorial the pyramid represented the rising sun and the
resurrection, and people believed that a tomb in this shape
would offer the dead king the chance of rising out of death. The
pyramid was seen as a ladder up to heaven enabling the dead
king's soul to travel and join the gods in the heavens. At night
time the king, assuming the shape of Osiris, god of the
afterlife and resurrection, descended in the barque of the sun
god Ra and, having become one with this god, sailed through the
bouts of darkness. Building pyramids ceased towards the end of
the Middle Kingdom period. The pharaohs of the New Kingdom
constructed their graves in caves with underground rooms and
passages symbolizing the nightly sojourn of the sun god. The
black pharaohs of the Kushite Dynasty and their descendants
readopted the old pyramids for their tombs. The number of
pyramids in Nubia, where a total of 223 bas been round, fat
exceeds that of Egypt
Nubia was a reservoir of royal pyramids long after they had
ceased to be built in Egypt itself. Above the3rd cataract the
principle pyramid cemeteries at el-Kurru, Gebel Barkal, Nuri and
Meroe, were built about 180 pyramids. The Nubian sequence begins
more than 800 years after the last royal pyramid was built in
Egypt .
The first Nubian pyramids were built at the site of el-Kurru,
13km downstream from the Temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal. The
site at el-Kurru contains the tombs of Kashta and his son Piye
(Piankhi), five earlier generations, together with Piye's
successors Shabako, Shabatko and Tanutamun, and fourteen
pyramids of the queens. Taharqa (c.690-664 BC) built his pyramid
on the new site at Nuri, but his successor Tanutamun (c.664-656
BC) returned to the site of el-Kurru.
The pyramids at Nuri. The Pyramids at Nuri. Located west of the
Nile in Upper Nubia.This cemetery contained 21 kings, together
with 52 queens and princes. Taharqa, the penultimate king of the
25th Dynasty was the first king to build his tomb at Nuri, and
it is the biggest pyramid ever built at the site . Queen
Amanishakheto was buried in Nuri also.
The first to build his tomb at Nuri was king Taharqa. His
pyramid had 51.75 m square and 40 or 50 m high. Taharqa
subterranean chambers are the most elaborate of any Kushite
tomb. The entrance was by an eastern stairway trench , north of
the pyramid's central axis, reflecting the alignment of the
original smaller pyramid. Three steps led to a doorway, with a
moulded frame, that opened to a tunnel, widened and heightened
into an antechamber with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. Six massive
pillars carved from the natural rock divide the burial chamber
into two side aisles and a central nave, each with a
barrel-vaulted ceiling. The entire chamber was surrounded by a
moat-likecorridor entered steps leading down from in front of
the antechamber doorway.After Taharqa 21 kings and 53 queens and
princesess were buried at Nuri under pyramids of good masonry,
using blocks of local red sandstone. The Nuri pyramids were
generally much larger than those at el-Kurru, reaching heights
of 20 to 30 m. The last king to be buried at Nuri died in about
308 BC.
Pyramids at Nuri, on the opposite bank of the river from Jebel
Barkal. Nuri pyramids were much larger than the earlier pyramids
at el-Kurra, reaching heights of 20-30m, and were built using
blocks of local red sandstone. The last king to be buried at
Nuri died around 308 BC.
The Pyramids of Meroë. Between the 5th and 6th cataracts. During
the Meroitic Period over forty kings and queens were buried at
Meroë. Forty generations of Nubian royalty are buried in Meroë,
and every royal Nubian tomb is housed within a pyramid. Their
tombs, built under steep pyramids, were all badly plundered in
ancient times, but pictures preserved in the tomb chapels tell
us that the rulers were mummified and covered with jewelry and
laid in wooden mummy cases. The larger tombs still contained
remains of weapons, bows, quivers of arrows, archer's thumb
rings, horse harnesses, wooden boxes and furniture, pottery,
colored glass and metal vessels, and other things, many of them
imported from Egypt and the Greek and Roman worlds
The site of Meroe became the preferred new cemetery. With the
exception of three or four generations of pyramids near Jebel
Barkal, Meroe remained the Royal Cemetery for around 600 years.
Pyramids were built from stepped courses of masonry blocks of
local red sandstone, and have survived the test of time rather
well. All the tombs at Meroë have been plundered, most
infamously by Italian explorer Giuseppe Ferlini (1800-1870) who
smashed the tops off 40 pyramids in a quest for treasure in the
1820s. Ferlini found only one cache of gold. His finds were
later sold, and remain at the museums in Munich and Berlin. His
aim was not to study the pyramids .
After 308 BC rose to prominence, and kings began to build
pyramids on cemetery of Meroe, between the 5th and 6th
cataracts. Meroe remained the royal cemetery for 600 years,
until AD 350. The step-sided pyramids of Meroe were built of
sandstone, 10 to 30 m high. As at Nuri, the pyramids were
stepped and built on a plinth, but now each triangular face was
framed by smooth bands of raised masonry along the wedges where
the faces met.
The Pyramids of el-Kurru. The first Nubian pyramids were built
at the site of el-Kurru. The site at el-Kurru contains the tombs
of King Kashta and his son Piye (Piankhi), five earlier
generations, together with Piye's successors Shabaka, Shabataka
and Tanwetamani and 14 pyramids of the queens El-Kurru lies on
the right bank of the Nile, about 13 km south from the Gebel
Barkal. Eexcavations directed by G.Reisner in 1918-19 discovered
on the cementery pyramids, which stood above tombs of kings of
XXV Dynasty: Piankhi, Shabaka, Shabataka and Tanutamon. Pyramid
of Piankhi had a base length of about 8 m and a slope of
probably about 68o. A stairway of 19 steps opened to the east
and led to the burial chamber cut into the bedrock as an open
trench and covered with a corbelled masonry roof. Piankhi's body
had been placed on a bed which rested in the middle of the
chamber on a stone bench with its four corners cut away to
receive the legs of the bed, so that the bed platform lay
directly on the bench. The pyramids of Piankhi scuccessors were
similiar. There were also 14 queens pyramids at el-Kurru, 6 to 7
m square, compared to the 8 to 11 m of the king's pyramids.
A reconstructed New Kingdom private tomb at Deir el-Medina,
Thebes. It is commonly assumed that the Nubian pyramids were
inspired by the great pyramids in Egypt, but in fact these
smaller taller pyramids bear a closer resemblance to the
non-royal "private" tombs of the New Kingdom. These private
tombs became popular towards the end of the 18th Dynasty, when
the pyramid was no longer the exclusive perogative of the king.
The re-emergence of the pyramid after such a significant
interval is an interesting case of the transfer of an
architectural idea from one region and culture to another. The
Nubian pyramids are much smaller, far more numerous and
considerably more standardised than those of Egypt's classic
pyramid age. Their angle of inclination is severely sharper than
that of the true pyramid at 52o51'. In fact the Nubian pyramids
distinctly resemble the private "mini" pyramid tombs of the New
Kingdom at Deir el-Medina and Abydos.
Archaeological excavation of sites in Nubia (Sudan) confirmed
human habitation in the river valley during the Paleolithic
period that spanned more than 60,000 years of Sudanese history.
Most of Sudan remains unexcavated, and archaeologists have
little idea of its layout of ancient times.
To date we know of three successive kingdoms of Nubia (aka
Kush), each with its own capital: the Kingdom of Kerma
(2400-1500 BC), that of Napata (1000-300 BC) and finally that of
Meroë (300 BC-300 AD). This is not including the elusive A-Group
(3800-2800 BC) which little is known, but there is ongoing
excavations. What is known as the A-group cemeteries found in
Nubia represent its Neolithic culture, and extended along the
whole length of Lower Nubia and even beyond the Second Cataract
about 200 kilometres south of Aswan. Archaeologists found
thousands of graves containing a wide variety of pottery,
leather garments, ostrich-feather fans, copper weapons and
palettes of quartz, all of which indicated the level of
civilization reached by the Nubians.
The largest site of Nubian civilization burial pyramids lies
north of Khartoum, along the Nile River in ancient Meroë. These
pyramids were built by the Kushite people of ancient Sudan to
house the bodies of departed kings. They were located in Meroë,
the last significant Kushite state.
With Rome trading with Axum and shifting its interests from
Kush, the Kushite Kingdom became more and more isolated. In 298
AD, Rome finally evacuated the northern borders of Kush. In an
apparent bid to regain some economic parody, Kush seems to have
attacked Axum, in retaliation for which Axum over-ran Kush,
occupied Meroë, and brought about the total collapse of Kush as
a civilization in 300
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