The pyramids of Meroe rise from a dry landscape in Sudan’s River Nile State, near Begrawiya and north of Khartoum. Their steep silhouettes are only one part of a much larger archaeological setting. UNESCO’s property, officially called the Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe, includes the ancient city of Meroe and the sites of Naqa and Musawwarat es-Sufra. UNESCO describes this semi-desert landscape between the Nile and Atbara rivers as the heartland of the Kingdom of Kush.
The name can mislead visitors: the World Heritage property is not simply one pyramid field, nor does the title mean that the monuments stand on a small island in the modern tourist sense. It is a broad cultural landscape with urban remains, temples and royal cemeteries. Meroe itself was a royal city and an important center of the Kushite state, whose history extended from the eighth century BCE into the fourth century CE.