Sudan’s ongoing civil war is threatening the integrity of its ancient Meroë pyramids, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its unique and angular architecture.
Located some 200 kilometres north of the capital Khartoum, the complex comprises over 200 pyramids built between 800 BC and 350 AD as royal tombs for the rulers of the Kingdom of Kush.
None are intact. Some were decapitated, others reduced to rubble, first in the 1800s by dynamite at the hands of treasure-hunting Europeans, and then by two centuries of sand and rain.
Archaeologist Mahmoud Suleiman said their deterioration is due to combination of many “adverse” factors, including climate change, war, and halting of international preservation efforts.
“The biggest problem is that we come in the morning to find that stones have fallen, which is a huge problem,” said antiquities inspector, Mohamed Mubarak.
“Or we’d find salt inside the funerary temples in an area with inscriptions and drawings. The salt weakens the stone and eventually, it will make us lose these inscriptions.”
The pyramids, ranging from 6 meters to 30 meters tall, have entrances that usually face east to greet the rising sun.
Some 800 years older than the Egyptian pyramids, they were once Sudan’s most visited heritage site.
But over three years into the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, they stand largely abandoned.
“Visitors were coming, missions were operating, and everything was fine until the year 2023 and the war,” said Mustafa Ahmed, one of the guards of the pyramids.
With no end in sight to the war in Sudan, the harsh desert environment continues to ravage these wonders of the ancient world.
