Sedeinga

Sedeinga holds two things on the same ground: the remains of a temple Amenhotep III built for his wife Tiye, of which a single column still stands, and a Meroitic cemetery built more than a thousand years later, where the bases of at least eighty small brick pyramids stand among hundreds of tombs, most only a few metres across. The pyramids were excavated between 2009 and 2012, the largest about 6.7 metres wide and the smallest under a metre, and the work has recovered inscriptions in Meroitic, the script of which is read but the language is not.

What you'll find

• The single column - the survivor of Tiye's temple, standing alone.
• The pyramid field - dozens of small Meroitic pyramid bases among hundreds of tombs.
• The scale contrast - a fourteenth-century BC temple beside a much later cemetery.
• The Meroitic inscriptions - texts in a script that is read but a language that is not.

When to go

November to February is the cool season. March to May is extremely hot with no shade. Excavation seasons run in the cooler months.

Before you go

Most of the pyramids are reduced to low bases and read as rubble. There is no interpretation on site. Travel in Sudan requires arrangements made well in advance.

Nearby

Soleb is south, and Abri is north.

Key facts