Sudan

Sudan, a country with more pyramids than Egypt, and where the local people stopped and asked to take as many photos of us as we did of them. I went camping in the Bayuda desert, watched the sunrise over the dunes bathing the remains of Meroitic pyramids in early morning light, explored the painted royal tombs at El Kurru and clambered over 2,500 year old ruins of the Temple of Aman at Jebel Barkel. I also saw the confluence of the White and Blue Niles, went to an enormous camel market and attended a traditional religious ceremony at the Hamid el-Nil Cemetery, which was something of an unforgettable experience. I don’t think I’ve ever taken so many photos on a holiday, but it’ll probably just look like 400 pictures of sand to you, so here are a select few…

Nubian pyramids at the foot of the holy mountain of Jebel Barkel.

Tombs of the Nubian kings at Nuri.

Camping in the desert at Meroë.

Sunrise over the Meroitic pyramids.

The Temple of Aman at Napata from the 12th century BCE.

You can walk all over it, up and down the walls, and there are bits of ancient pottery just randomly lying around.

Paintings inside the Temple of Mut at Jebel Barkel.

This is the Sudan equivalent of Newport Pagnall service station. But with better coffee.

The confluence of the Blue and the White Niles. I shall call it the Brown Nile.

Manal – our guide for the week – she was born in a small village 400 miles from Khartoum and is an archaeology graduate from the University of Khartoum.

Statue of the goddess Beset in the National Museum of Sudan.

The ghaffirs opening a Nubian royal tomb at El Kurru for us to explore. Honestly, it really did feel like something out of Indiana Jones; the pyramid is long since gone and this is a relatively modern entrance to go down to the tomb. The following photos are of the painted walls in the tomb dating back to 750 BCE, and the stairway coming back up to this entrance.

It totally blew me away!

The Khalifa’s House. Well it wouldn’t be the same if something wasn’t closed 😜

This is my favourite “curse of cheekygintravels” to date. The old spice market in the Khartoum souk which was closed, due to having burnt down the previous week 😬

Taking a break with some ginger coffee in the souk.

The Hamid el-Nil Cemetery, where groups of Sufis come together each week to hear stories about the prophet, and to pray and dance together in an inclusive ceremony open to all faiths. It was slightly bonkers, but really interesting and lots of people wanted to talk to us and welcome us to Sudan and to the ceremony.