Meroe

Just a couple of hours outside of Khartoum are the ancinet pyramids of Meroe, the remains of a royal cemetery from the Merotic kingdom, dating back to 300 BC. Although not as grand or imposing as the pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the advantage here is that when you turn up no one else is there, well apart from the four people I traveled up there with; Jonas and Ghazala who I have traveled down from Wadi Halfa with, and James and Ben from England who I met in Khartoum. Unfortunately about 100 years ago a French guy turned up at Meroe and knocked the top off all the pyramids in the vain hope he might find some gold. It's really annoying actually because the pyramids would have been even more beautiful if still intact. But despite that the peace and quiet makes the experience a far more pleasant one than Giza.

We arrived in the late afternoon and watched the sun set behind the pyramids. Once the sun was down we set up a camp fire and spent the night in the desert and saw all the stars come out. First thing the following a morning a bunch of guys on donkeys turned up and started setting up a little market by our camp. We hoped they might have bought some tea and breakfast, but alas all they had was crappy handicrafts. We spent a bit more time around the pyramids in the morning and then hopped on top of a lorry and went back to Khartoum. All in all a very pleasant little excursion.