The pyramid cemeteries at Meroë

The Royal Cemeteries of Meroe consist of three necropolises with more than 1000 graves, including about 150 pyramids, which represent the grave monuments of almost all queens and kings of the Meroitic Kingdom. Numerous high officials were also buried here. The uniqueness of the site is characterised by the impressive sandstone pyramids, some of which originally stood as high as 30 m, and their offering chapels with outstanding relief decoration. Beneath, their subterranean burial chambers with well-preserved murals and rich corpus of grave goods testify to the significance of Meroe in antiquity. Today, these necropolises are one of the most important archaeological sites in the Sudan, attracting thousands of Sudanese and international tourists each year. These unique monuments must be preserved and carefully restored for future generations.

In January 2015, Qatar Museums (QM) invited the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) to join a large scale research, conservation and management project at the pyramids of Meroe – the Qatari Mission for the Pyramids of Sudan (QMPS). The aim was to develop the World Heritage Site in a sustainable way and to save its endangered monuments. QMPS was founded in close cooperation with the Sudanese antiquities department, the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM). It is financed by the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project (QSAP) as one of 40 international archaeological projects in Sudan. In March 2015 the international team of QMPS experts started working at the site.