Sudan was hot. Really really hot, and really really sunny, and really really dusty and sandy. Except when it rained in Khartoum, but I’ll get to that later.
The part of Sudan I was most interested in was the old stuff. I read that there are more pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt. There are also lots of other ancient petroglyphs and monuments discussed in an excellent BBC documentary on Lost Civilizations that discusses ancient Sudan.
Archeologists keep finding new ancient sites in Sudan. Some are as old as 7000 years. The unfortunate part is that many of the ancient sites in Sudan are not taken care of very well. At the Meroë Royal Cemetery they have done some rebuilding of monuments, or adding entrance chapels onto the old pyramids to show what they would have looked like originally. Here are some pictures from Meroë. We had a great camping site there with a direct view onto the pyramids. There were only two problems: it was too hot to sleep and fine sand dust kept getting blown into the tent all night long.
The part of Sudan I was most interested in was the old stuff. I read that there are more pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt. There are also lots of other ancient petroglyphs and monuments discussed in an excellent BBC documentary on Lost Civilizations that discusses ancient Sudan.
Archeologists keep finding new ancient sites in Sudan. Some are as old as 7000 years. The unfortunate part is that many of the ancient sites in Sudan are not taken care of very well. At the Meroë Royal Cemetery they have done some rebuilding of monuments, or adding entrance chapels onto the old pyramids to show what they would have looked like originally. Here are some pictures from Meroë. We had a great camping site there with a direct view onto the pyramids. There were only two problems: it was too hot to sleep and fine sand dust kept getting blown into the tent all night long.
At lots of the other sites, the pyramids had lost most of their shape from people stealing the stones for building materials over many many centuries. Even in Meroë you could see a lot of graffiti on the pyramids, which made me pretty mad. In one way it is nice that places did not have big fences around them, and were just part of the desert as they had always been, but on the other hand things are getting trashed.
One of the best places we went was Karima. They have a big hill outside town called Jebel Barkal, which has temple and pyramid ruins all around it. It is one of the ancient sites discussed in the documentary I mentioned above. We were there at the end of Ramadan during the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, and practically the whole town comes out to climb the hill at sunset. It made for a very festive mood, but on the downside lots of people I didn’t know wanted to take my picture, and also lots of people were setting off firecrackers or blasting caps or something right at the edge of the hill or right at our feet sometimes. It is a 100m fall from up there so you don’t want anything making you feel jumpy!! Running down the sandy dune on the one side of the hill after the climb was the most fun part. It reminded me of Namibia.
In Karima we stayed at one family’s home and met some really nice people. Best of all was Muammer who spoke really good English and showed us around all the ancient sites. It was great to have him since there are almost no signs in English. We met his whole family and everyone was really welcoming and kind to us. Thanks Muammer – we will always remember you.
Flooding in the desert?
As I hinted above, it wasn’t all sunshine in Sudan. When we were in Khartoum it was mostly cloudy and rainy (but still incredibly hot). I expected that with everything normally being so dry, the ground would just absorb the rain instantly, especially in the desert. But surprisingly this did not happen. Both in Khartoum and in the desert as we drove north, there was a lot of standing water even a day or more after the rains. It was so wet in one area that we cancelled going to some ruins where we were going to camp because we were worried the car would get stuck in the wet sand far away from any traffic that could help us.
As I hinted above, it wasn’t all sunshine in Sudan. When we were in Khartoum it was mostly cloudy and rainy (but still incredibly hot). I expected that with everything normally being so dry, the ground would just absorb the rain instantly, especially in the desert. But surprisingly this did not happen. Both in Khartoum and in the desert as we drove north, there was a lot of standing water even a day or more after the rains. It was so wet in one area that we cancelled going to some ruins where we were going to camp because we were worried the car would get stuck in the wet sand far away from any traffic that could help us.
One last word of thanks to the Greek Club in Khartoum. We went there every day to swim (you have to pay to use the facilities, but it was the only place we could get access to a pool). It was great in the hot sunshine and even in the pouring rain. And they made the best lemonade ever. So go there, if you are in Khartoum sometime.