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. Excavation there has recovered inscriptions in Meroitic, the script of which is read but the language is not.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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 north, and Abri is beyond it.