The pyramids at Meroë were built by rulers of the ancient Kingdom of Kush, one of the most powerful kingdoms in Africa. The Kushites loved pyramid-building so much that they carried on doing it for hundreds of years, long after Egypt stopped. Today there are around 200 to 255 pyramids in Sudan, compared with about 138 in Egypt.
Meroë pyramids look different from the ones you might picture. They are much steeper — their sides shoot almost straight up — and they are narrower at the base. Many have a small chapel built onto the front, decorated with carvings of gods and queens. The queens of Kush were called Kandakes, and some of the biggest pyramids belong to them.
The pyramids sit at the edge of the Nubian Desert, so the sand dunes blow right up to their bases. When the wind moves the sand, the landscape changes shape around the pyramids, almost like a slow-moving ocean. At sunrise and sunset the stones glow gold and orange — photographers travel from all over the world to capture that light.