Qualla: Nubian pyramids https://qualla.com/nubian-pyramids en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/p/b/nubian-pyramids-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Nubian pyramids https://qualla.com/nubian-pyramids Nubian pyramids: Introduction https://qualla.com/nubian-pyramids/ Photo credit Cailliaud, Frédéric in 1826, Public domain. Sudan has more ancient pyramids than Egypt. That single sentence is a useful corrective to a centuries-old imbalance in how the pyramids of Africa have been written about. The Nubian pyramids cluster at four sites along the Nile in northern Sudan -- El-Kurru, Nuri, Jebel Barkal, and Meroe -- and they were built by the Kushite kings and queens who ruled the Kingdom of Kush from roughly 750 BCE until 350 CE. They are steeper than the Egyptian pyramids. They are narrower. They are more densely packed. And one of them, raised around 350 CE at Meroe, was the last pyramid ever built anywhere in the Nile Valley -- or indeed anywhere in the ancient world.

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Image: Cailliaud, Frédéric in 1826 | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/p/b/nubian-pyramids-wp/sepb-nubian-pyramids-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Nubian pyramids: The First African Pyramids in a Thousand Years https://qualla.com/nubian-pyramids/ Photo credit COSV, CC BY-SA 3.0. The tradition began at El-Kurru in 751 BCE, during the reign of King Piye (Piankhy), founder of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt. After centuries in which no pyramids had been built in either Egypt or Nubia, the Kushite kings deliberately revived the form as part of their self-conceptio...

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Image: COSV | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/p/b/nubian-pyramids-wp/sepb-nubian-pyramids-the-first-african-pyramids-in-a-thousand-years.mp3 0:06 2 full Nubian pyramids: Nuri and the Great Kings https://qualla.com/nubian-pyramids/ Photo credit Cailliaud, Frédéric in 1826, Public domain. Twenty-six kilometers upstream from El-Kurru, at Nuri, the next generation of Kushite kings built their tombs. Nuri held the burials of 21 kings and 52 queens and princes between 670 and 310 BCE, including Taharqa, whose reign from 690 to 664 BCE represented the Kushite dynasty's...

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Image: Cailliaud, Frédéric in 1826 | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/p/b/nubian-pyramids-wp/sepb-nubian-pyramids-nuri-and-the-great-kings.mp3 0:06 3 full Nubian pyramids: Meroe and the Last Royal Cemetery https://qualla.com/nubian-pyramids/ Photo credit Cailliaud, Frédéric in 1826, Public domain. When the Kushite capital moved from Napata to Meroe around 270 BCE, the royal cemetery moved with it. Meroe's North Cemetery holds pyramids built from around 300 BCE to 350 CE -- roughly 700 years of continuous royal burial. The South Cemetery is older, dating to the Napatan peri...

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Image: Cailliaud, Frédéric in 1826 | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/p/b/nubian-pyramids-wp/sepb-nubian-pyramids-meroe-and-the-last-royal-cemetery.mp3 0:06 4 full Nubian pyramids: Ferlini's Hammer https://qualla.com/nubian-pyramids/ Photo credit TrackHD, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1834, an Italian physician and treasure hunter named Giuseppe Ferlini arrived at Meroe. Having heard rumors of gold concealed inside the pyramids, he began systematically tearing them apart from the top down. At Wad ban Naqa, he demolished the pyramid of the kandake Amanishakh...

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Image: TrackHD | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/p/b/nubian-pyramids-wp/sepb-nubian-pyramids-ferlinis-hammer.mp3 0:06 5 full Nubian pyramids: George Reisner and the Rediscovery https://qualla.com/nubian-pyramids/ Photo credit Map created from DEMIS Mapserver, which are public domain. Koba-chan, CC BY-SA 3.0. The serious archaeological understanding of the Nubian pyramids begins with George Andrew Reisner, the American archaeologist who excavated at El-Kurru, Nuri, and other sites in the early twentieth century. It was Reisner who solved a longstanding puzzle: while Egyptian pyramids ...

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Image: Map created from DEMIS Mapserver, which are public domain. Koba-chan | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/p/b/nubian-pyramids-wp/sepb-nubian-pyramids-george-reisner-and-the-rediscovery.mp3 0:06 6 full