The Kingdom of Kush built the pyramids of Meroë on the Sahara’s southern fringe in present-day Sudan.
Meroë was a major royal city of Kush, an ancient kingdom centred along the Nile in what is now Sudan. The city became especially important after the Kushite royal centre shifted south from Napata. Its cemeteries contain many steep-sided pyramids built for rulers and members of the elite.
Kush had long political, cultural and commercial connections with ancient Egypt, but it was not simply an Egyptian province. Kushite rulers controlled Egypt for a period during the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and their traditions combined Egyptian influences with local African practices.
Meroë’s pyramids are smaller and more sharply angled than the largest pyramids at Giza. Their distinctive appearance reflects different construction traditions, dates and purposes within the wider Nile Valley world.