Ancient Ruins and Desert Lights

At last, we have made the 4.5 hr drive to the ancient and enchanting city of Meroe. Built nearly 4000 years ago, there is an unmistakable sense of charm and mystery in this place. Though much smaller than the pyramids in Egypt, the ones at Meroe display original hieroglyphics on their stone surfaces. Unfortunately many of the bricks have been vandalized by local and foreign tourists. Nevertheless, there is an incredible power to these aincient structures. We saw pyramids, temples, stone statues and were even escorted by a local gate-keeper into a labyrinth of caves underground with walls covered in artistic depictions of life in that distant era. Truly an experience!

The ride itself was an adventure. The road was recently built, within 2-3 years, by Chinese engineers and consisted of one lane in each direction. In the distance, you can see thousands of power lines leading to the new dam of Meroe that will be in operation in the near future.

As beautiful as the drive was it was also considerably emotional. Passing through scattered towns, many without electricity, you can see mud-made dwellings and farms operated by donkey driven carts. Though life here is scarce, scattered, and simple, there is a certain envy that one feels towards this humble lifestyle in the desert. They live under the stars that most of us never see and they don’t struggle the way we do in America.

After passing hundreds of kilometres of beautiful desert and small towns we took a highway that ran parallel to the Nile. Thousands of acres of date palms followed the monster river. After observing the pyramids and ancient ruins, we climbed a small, sandy mountain to take in the majestic views of Meroe from above. From the top we could see vast stretches of date-palms, red desert and yellow rooftops--all of this within the backdrop of the incredible river. From there we heard the Azan ring out from various mosques and we were all haunted by the beauty of that sound.

Later that evening, after dusk, we went in search of a meal and became particularly excited when we saw a modern looking restaurant promising hamburgers! We parked the car and walked hurriedly towards the storefront only to find that it was still under construction. We then searched for quite a while for a place to get a decent meal and eventually settled for a dinner of curbside, grilled mystery meat that only Andrew Zimmerman would appreciate! We also enjoyed some foul and a traditional fish pâté called fasikh.

The ride back to Khartoum was a very different experience. We were all exhausted from our sun-soaked adventure and were racing to get home. The highways were lightly used but large trucks made it dangerous to pass. With absolutely no lights in front you, you had to rely only on the high beams. Behind was the eerie darkness that continued as if on the ocean. People could be seen walking close to the road in total darkness. Only at the last minute could you see them in their flowing white gowns.

I have been waiting for years to see the stars. We pulled off the road, only a few hundred feet or so and paused to hear nothing but utter silence and see millions of the most clear and amazing stars imaginable.

As promised, a few pictures...

A scary yet beautiful view!

Up the mountain we go!

A birds eye view.

A beautiful dune picture.

One of the many small towns passed through.