Meroë - A Place of Elephant Gods and Lion Temples, Sudan (403/418)

Meroë - A Place of Elephant Gods and Lion Temples, Sudan (403/418)

For travellers who come to this remote corner of Africa, it must seem like the end of the world. Since 1994 a team of German archaeologists has been excavating a city at the foot of the Temple of Amun in Naqa whose golden age began at around the time of Christ's birth and ended half a millennium later with the decline of the Meroë civilization.A day trip further north by caravan is Musawwarat. Here too the central temple dominates the remains of a city that must have once been home to tens of thousands of people. The pyramids of Meroë rise from the sand another day's journey further towards Egypt. Archaeologist Friedrich Hinkel from Berlin spent forty years doing research here. During that time he uncovered the mystery of the wooden cranes that were discovered inside the pyramids. The Meroë civilization was still a significant regional power up until the middle of the first millennium AD. Maybe later generations of archaeologists will be able to say what brought about the end of the Nubian kingdom, for today, too much still remains hidden in the sand.