In search of lost pyramids of Meroë..

-Pyramids? Is it Egypt? Or Mexico? Wait, but they do look a bit different? Where is it?- asked my flatmate when I was showing her the photos from my last weekend adventure.
-Yes, no and no — these are the pyramids of Meroë in Sudan.
-Sudan?!

Few people know about Sudan and around 200 pyramids that are there. Luckily last December when traveling in Saudi Arabia, I met Jenny and over the dinner, while listening to other tourists adventures, we decided we had to get to Sudan together. Decided, done! Visa sorted, hotel booked, tour guide contacted and off we go.

Landing in Khartoum on Friday evening, after passport registration in a tiny office in front of departures (don’t forget to do it, otherwise you can always ask your hotel or guide to do it for you, but we as we were planning to leave for Meroë early the next morning, we decided not to take chances and register at the airport if we could!), we grabbed a taxi to the hotel, and after a quick dinner and we went for an evening stroll along Nile street — to watch locals drinking Sudanese coffee and have one with them (we figured out later that tea/coffee time is extremely important in Sudan!) Oh, almost forgot to mention, me, as an addicted coffee drinker, I was not able to “digest” the Sudanese coffee: a small espresso like cup of black as coal shot of coffee with a mixture of African spices in it!

On Saturday morning our driver Mohamed picked us up early morning. We had a quick stop for water, watermelons and local falafels (tasty!) for the road, we headed for our first stop — Naqa.

After almost an hour of taking photos (sights are completely empty, so we got a bit creative and found artistic soul in ourselves), we drove to Mussawarat, where a guard opened the temple just for us and tried to give us a private tour.

Another hour drive and we crossed a wadi, where we had a watermelon break!

Getting a bit hungry, we stopped in a small town for lunch and a tea/coffee at a “local Starbucks”, before heading to Meroë for sunset.

When we reached Meroë the last group of tourists was leaving, so (again!) we had pyramids for ourselves and enjoyed the sunset in peace.

-Sister, — Mohamed caught me when I was alone while Jenny was busy taking photos of sunset. — I really like your friend, Jenny, can you help a brother and talk to her about me?

I was speechless (and I assure you, that doesn’t happen often). So now all those tea/coffee/cookie and watermelon breaks made sense to me — Mohamed was trying to get to Jenny through her stomach!

-Of course, Mohamed, but what are you offering for her? — and now it was Mohamed’s turn to lose words, I added- Jenny is from Germany, educated, former flight attendant and seen the world, so I think 200 camels is a fare price for her, don’t you? And because you seem like a serious young man, I think we can agree on 150! Deal?

On Sunday we woke up at 4am, to be able to get to the pyramids on time for sunrise and have enough time to say our goodbies before heading back to Khartoum. And of course, we had to stop for morning coffee and falafels.

We got back to Khartoum around noon- had even time to spent some time in the National museum, and, after feeding us delicious Gurassa bil Damaa (pancake topped with meat or okra), Mohamed dropped us at the airport (not without stopping for the last tea/coffee session!) to catch the flight back home leaving him wondering where he could get 150 camels as bakshish for Jenny!
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dunechka.simplesite