MEROË (Sudan), April 30 — Mostafa Ahmed Mostafa is the heir to a long line of groundskeepers who have guarded Sudan’s ancient pyramids of Meroe. Now, three years into the war...
Man captured, put on seven day remand after being on the run for allegedly beating wife so severely she miscarried Muhyiddin’s trial: Bank officer says Mamfor’s RM19.5m Bersatu donation ‘unusual’ as company sought several RM500,000 cheques on same dayPyramids stand in the Meroe desert, part of the archaeological sites of the so-called Island of Meroe on the eastern shore of the Nile River, about 220km north of Khartoum, on April 22, 2026.
— AFP pic! Plus, enjoy an additional FREE RM10 when you sign up using code VERSAMM10 with a min. cash-in of RM100 today. T&Cs apply. MEROË , April 30 — Mostafa Ahmed Mostafa is the heir to a long line of groundskeepers who have guarded Sudan’s ancient pyramids of Meroe.
Now, three years into the war between the army and paramilitary forces, he stands near-solitary sentinel over his heritage.
“These pyramids are ours, it’s our history, it’s who we are,” the 65-year-old said, flanked by the dark sandstone structures of the Bajrawiya necropolis, which is part of the Island of Meroe, a Unesco World Heritage site. Clad all in white, Mostafa cut a striking figure crossing the 2,400-year-old burial site, which holds 140 pyramids built during the Kingdom of Kush’s Meroitic period. 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. A three-hour drive from the capital Khartoum, it was once Sudan’s most visited heritage site. Now three years into the war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, only a lone camel’s grunt cuts through the silence.
Archaeologist and site director Mahmoud Soliman gave AFP journalists a tour, explaining the Kush kingdom’s matrilineal succession, trade routes and relationship with neighbouring Egypt. Together, he, Mostafa and young archaeologist Mohamed Mubarak man the site, cobbling together resources to keep the erosive rain and sands at bay. Apart from a short-lived influx of visitors early in the war — mostly displaced people desperate for something to do — the site has stood largely abandoned.
Local site guard Mostafa Ahmed speaks in front of pyramids standing in the Meroe desert, at one of the archaeological sites of the so-called Island of Meroe on the eastern shore of the Nile River. — AFP picIt is worlds away from its pre-war days, when there were “regular weekend visits from Khartoum, busloads of 200 people per day”, Soliman remembered fondly.
Sudan’s heritage sites had experienced a resurgence, he explained, after the uprising of 2018-2019, when young Sudanese protested against autocrat Omar al-Bashir. One chant went: “My grandfather Taharqa, my grandmother Kandaka” — the former a Kush Pharaoh, the latter the name for ancient queens, and also used to honour the women icons of the revolution.
“Young people were taking more of an interest, they were organising trips to tourist sites and getting to know their own country,” Soliman said. Residents of the nearby Tarabil village — named after the local word for “pyramids” — sold souvenirs and rented camels and “were entirely dependent on the site”. On a breezy day in April, Khaled Abdelrazek, 45, rushed to the site as soon as he heard there were visitors.
He squatted at the entrance, showed AFP journalists handmade miniature sandstone pyramids and reminisced about when there were “dozens of us selling”. In the months before the war, there were visits from documentary crews, a music festival and “big ideas for right after Eid al-Fitr”, said Soliman — all destroyed when the war broke out in the last days of Ramadan.
“I used to feel like I was teaching people about their culture,” said Mubarak, who has worked at the site since 2018. “Now, everyone’s top priority is of course food and water and shelter. But this is also important. We need to protect this for future generations, we can’t let it be destroyed or wither away.
” Sudanese site director Mahmoud Soliman gestures inside a tomb beneath a pyramid at one of the archaeological sites of the so-called Island of Meroe. — AFP picNear the site’s entrance, the proud pyramids, each fronted by a small mortuary temple, are framed by rolling black sandstone hills. The vista is breathtaking, but Soliman said his eyes see only danger: Is that crack in that pyramid new? Has that sand mound moved?
Does the pipe scaffolding at that burial chamber entrance need to be redone before the rainy season?
“I think if the pyramids had been left in their original state we wouldn’t have all these problems,” Mubarak said. The structures are smaller and steeper than their Egyptian neighbours, built to “withstand the sands and sweep away the rainwater, but every fracture creates issues”.
The largest pyramid of the lot — of Queen Amanishakheto, who reigned around the 1st century AD — suffered more than just fractures and is now effectively a sandbox, fine sand swirling where her tomb once stood. In 1834, Italian adventurer Giuseppe Ferlini, who destroyed dozens of pyramids, levelled Amanishakheto’s and carted her jewellery off to Europe. It is now exhibited in the Egyptian museums in Berlin and Munich.
The outside of her temple wall still stands, where a larger-than-life carving of the queen shows her standing proud, holding a spear in one hand and smiting enemy captives. Soliman showed AFP journalists more reliefs: the lion deity Apademak and motifs shared with Egypt, including the gods Amun and Anubis, lotus flowers and hieroglyphics.
“This is just a distant dream, but I’d really like us to one day be able to do proper restoration on these pyramids,” he said, as if he were not really allowing himself to hope. The archaeological sites of the Island of Meroe, set in a semi-desert landscape between the Nile and Atbara rivers, formed the core of the Kingdom of Kush, a major regional power from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. — AFP pic
Bajrawiya Kingdom Of Kush Mubarak Kandaka Sudan Pyramids
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