Sudan has twice as many pyramids as Egypt.
The kings and nobles of Kush built about 255 of them, a tradition that lasted almost a thousand years, from about 700 BC to AD 350.
The events
- Meroë becomes the heart of Kushc. 270 BC · Meroë. Around 270 BC the royal burials of Kush moved from Napata to Meroë on the Nile. The Meroitic kingdom, with its own script, pyramids and large-scale iron smelting, flourished until the 4th century AD.
- Kushite conquest of Egyptc. 727 BC · Napata. King Piye of Kush marched from Napata and conquered Egypt down to the Delta, founding the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. Nubian pharaohs ruled both kingdoms for about half a century and revived ancient Egyptian traditions.
More amazing facts
- 776 BC · 753 BC The Olympic Games are older than Rome: the first were held in 776 BC, and by tradition the city was founded only 23 years later.
- 776 BC The first Olympic champion on record was a cook.
- 753 BC · 248 · 476 In 248 Rome celebrated its 1,000th birthday.
- 700 BC · 600 BC The Hanging Gardens of Babylon may not have been in Babylon at all. Oxford scholar Stephanie Dalley argues the legend describes the Assyrian king Sennacherib's gardens at Nineveh, over 400 km north, later credited to Nebuchadnezzar.
- 660 BC · 1873 Every 11 February Japan marks the accession of an emperor most scholars think never existed.
- 650 BC · 612 BC The fire that destroyed Nineveh in 612 BC baked the clay tablets of Ashurbanipal's library — helping them survive to the present day.