(ORDO NEWS) — If you drive north from Khartoum along a narrow desert road towards the ancient city of Meroe, a breathtaking view opens up: dozens of grandiose pyramids resting on the sky.
No matter how many times you visit this city, the feeling of reverent admiration never leaves you.
At Meroe itself, once the capital of the kingdom of Kush, a road divides the city. In the east is the royal cemetery, where there are about 50 sandstone and red brick pyramids of various heights; many of them have broken tops – a legacy of European marauders of the 19th century.
To the west is the royal city, which includes the ruins of a palace, a temple, and a royal bath. Each structure has a distinctive architecture that draws on local, Egyptian and Greco-Roman decorative styles, a testament to Meroe’s global connections.
A Brief History of “Land of Kush”
The first settlers in northern Sudan appeared 300,000 years ago. Here is the oldest African kingdom, located south of the Sahara – the kingdom of Kush (about 2500-1500 BC). This culture produced some of the most beautiful pottery in the Nile Valley.
Sudan was rich in natural resources, in particular gold, ebony and ivory. Several items in the British Museum collection are made from these materials.
During the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2181 BC), the ancient Egyptians were drawn to these resources, often resulting in conflict as the Egyptian and Sudanese rulers sought to control trade.
Kush was the most powerful state in the Nile Valley around 1700 BC. This was followed by a conflict between Egypt and Kush, culminating in the conquest of Kush by Thutmose I (1504-1492 BC). Neolithic cultures survived in the west and south, since both areas were beyond the reach of the Egyptian rulers.
The city of Meroe and a strange mural depicting a giant carrying elephants
The city of Meroe is famous for more than two hundred pyramids, many of which are in ruins. They have the characteristic dimensions and proportions of the Nubian pyramids.
The location of Meroe became known to Europeans in 1821 thanks to the French mineralogist Frédéric Cailliaud (1787-1869). The most interesting objects found were the reliefs and paintings on the walls of the burial chambers. One of the paintings depicts a gigantic giant carrying two elephants.
His features are not Nubian, but Caucasoid, and his hair is light in color. Will this mural prove the ancient existence of a race of red-haired giants with six fingers?
Did giants really roam the Nile Valley in the distant past?
In AD 79, the Roman historian Josephus wrote that the last representatives of the Egyptian giant race actually lived in the 13th century BC, during the reign of King Joshua.
He further wrote that they had huge bodies, and their faces were so different from the faces of ordinary people that it was amazing to look at them, and it was scary to listen to their loud voice, like a lion’s roar.
Moreover, on many wall paintings of Ancient Egypt, the builders of the pyramids are depicted as “giant people” with a height of 5 to 6 meters. According to experts, these giant people were able to lift huge stone blocks weighing up to 5 tons.
Some of these ancient wall paintings depict gigantic kings ruling ancient Egypt, while others show relatively small servants under gigantic people.
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