The ancient Sudanese city famous for a royal cemetery filled with Nubian pyramids is Meroe.
Meroe was a major city of the Kingdom of Kush, a powerful Nubian state that flourished along the Nile south of Egypt. Its cemeteries near present-day Bagrawiya contain the pyramidal tombs of Kushite kings, queens, royal relatives, officials, and other elites. The burial tradition continued for centuries, roughly from the 3rd century BCE into the early centuries CE.
The site includes northern, southern, and western cemeteries. The northern cemetery became the principal burial ground for Kushite monarchs, while the western cemetery was used largely for high-ranking non-royal families. More than 140 pyramids are known across the cemetery complex, although many are damaged or incomplete.
Meroitic pyramids are much smaller and steeper than Egypt’s famous pyramids, and they usually had small chapels and underground burial chambers. Meroe is sometimes confused with Napata, an earlier Kushite capital whose royal cemeteries include el-Kurru and Nuri. Meroe’s pyramids became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011.