Featured: How and why the ancients enchanted Great Britain and Brittany

How and why the ancients enchanted Great Britain and Brittany

Random Image


Listrup Jættestue

Sacred Stones in Indian Civilization: with Special Reference to Megaliths

Sacred Stones in Indian Civilization: with Special Reference to Megaliths

Who's Online

There are currently, 500 guests and 4 members online.

You are a guest. To join in, please register for free by clicking here

Sponsors

<< Other Photo Pages >> Sedeinga - Pyramid / Mastaba in Sudan

Submitted by Andy B on Tuesday, 26 February 2013  Page Views: 5597

Multi-periodSite Name: Sedeinga
Country: Sudan Type: Pyramid / Mastaba

Latitude: 20.553400N  Longitude: 30.292910E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
1 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3

Internal Links:
External Links:

Sedeinga
Sedeinga submitted by Andy B : This aerial photo shows a series of pyramids and graves that a team of archaeologists has been exploring at Sedeinga in Sudan. Since 2009 they have discovered at least 35 small pyramids at the site, the largest being 22 feet (7 meters) in width. CREDIT: Photo copyright B-N Chagny, SEDAU/SFDAS Site in Sudan (Vote or comment on this photo)
At least 35 small pyramids, along with graves, have been discovered clustered closely together at a site called Sedeinga in Sudan.

Discovered between 2009 and 2012, researchers are surprised at how densely the pyramids are concentrated. In one field season alone, in 2011, the research team discovered 13 pyramids packed into roughly 5,381 square feet (500 square meters), slightly larger than a basketball court.

They date back around 2,000 years to a time when a kingdom named Kush flourished in Sudan. Kush shared a border with Egypt and, later on, the Roman Empire. The desire of the kingdom's people to build pyramids was apparently influenced by Egyptian funerary architecture.

More at: Live Science and more details of the project from the French Diplomatic Service.

Note: Some nearby images from Flickr on this page which appear to show the pyramids
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.


Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Flickr
Sedeinga Temple of Queen Tiye (Adaya Hat-Tiye, House of Tiye) XVIII Dyn (1)
Sedeinga Nilwa Church Medieval Reused Pharaonic Columns Amenhotep III XVIII Dyn
Sedeinga Settlement 7th-12th cent Byzantine Monastery
Sedeinga Necropolis Tomb WT8 Chalice c.250 CE Kushite (Meroitic) Polychromatic gilded glass "Drink and you shall live" (2e)
Sedeinga Necropolis Amphora Kushite (Meroitic) glass (3e)
Sedeinga Temple of Queen Tiye (Adaya Hat-Tiye, House of Tiye) XVIII Dyn (2)

The above images may not be of the site on this page, but were taken nearby. They are loaded from Flickr so please click on them for image credits.


Click here to see more info for this site

Nearby sites

Click here to view sites on an interactive map of the area

Key: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed

Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)

To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.


Turn off the page maps and other distractions

Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 14.0km SSE 162° Soleb* Ancient Temple
 55.7km SSE 152° Sesebi* Ancient Village or Settlement
 181.6km NE 34° Buhen Stone Fort or Dun
 221.8km NNE 12° Nabta Playa* Stone Circle
 241.6km NE 35° Abu Simbel Temple of Ramses II* Ancient Temple
 241.7km NE 35° Abu Simbel Temple of Nefertari* Ancient Temple
 275.5km SE 144° Karima Pyramids* Pyramid / Mastaba
 275.9km SE 144° Gebel Barkal Temple of Mut Ancient Temple
 275.9km SE 144° Gebel Barkal Temple B700 Ancient Temple
 276.0km SE 144° Gebel Barkal Mountain and Rock Formation* Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature
 276.3km SE 144° Gebel Barkal Temple of Amon* Ancient Temple
 279.0km SE 142° Nuri Pyramids* Pyramid / Mastaba
 280.4km SE 145° Sanam Temple Ancient Temple
 284.7km SSE 147° El-Kurru Pyramids* Pyramid / Mastaba
 285.1km SSE 147° El-Kurru Tumuli Round Barrow(s)
 286.3km SSE 148° Zuma Tumuli Round Barrow(s)
 316.3km NE 40° Temple of Amada* Ancient Temple
 316.4km NE 40° Temple of Derr* Ancient Temple
 316.8km NE 40° Tomb of Penout* Rock Cut Tomb
 326.8km SSE 160° Wadi Abu Dom Rock Art Rock Art
 340.9km NE 43° Temple of Wadi el-Seboua* Ancient Temple
 341.3km NE 43° Rock Cut Shrine to Hatshepsut and Thutmose III* Ancient Temple
 341.6km NE 43° Temple of Dakka* Ancient Temple
 341.7km NE 43° Temple of Maharaqqa* Ancient Temple
 402.1km NE 41° Temple of Dendur* Ancient Temple
View more nearby sites and additional images

<< Pitt Rivers Museum

Ratfyn Barrow >>

Please add your thoughts on this site

Great Crowns of Stone: The Recumbent Stone Circles of Scotland

Great Crowns of Stone: The Recumbent Stone Circles of Scotland

Sponsors

Auto-Translation (Google)

Translate from English into:

"Sedeinga" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
Newly found pyramids reveal aspects of social equality in ancient Sudan by davidmorgan on Sunday, 19 May 2013
(User Info | Send a Message)
Submitted by coldrum:

People power may have come to modern-day Egypt and not Sudan, but the unearthing of ancient pyramids in Egypt's southern neighbour shows that greater social equality existed there 2,000 years ago, a French archeologist says.

Three years of digging by a French team at Sedeinga, about 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the Egyptian border, has unearthed 35 pyramids that emphasise the contrast between the two ancient cultures, said Claude Rilly, director of the mission.

"Pyramids were so fashionable that everybody that could afford to build one, did," said Rilly, referring to the latter part of the Meroe kingdom, around 100-200 AD.

"So we have really a kind of inflation, what I call a democratisation of the pyramid which is without equivalent anywhere, especially in Egypt."

Sudan's remote and relatively undiscovered pyramids contrast with their grander and better-known cousins to the north.

Egyptian pyramids, built far earlier than those in Sudan, held the tombs of kings, the royal family and nobles -- but never the middle class, Rilly said.

Sudanese royalty also got their pyramids, but later so did many other lesser souls, said the 53-year-old archeologist, who began studying hieroglyphics when he was only seven.

"It reached layers of the population which have never been concerned by building of pyramids in Egypt," Rilly said. "This is really something new, which we didn't expect."

That is why there is such a large number. Sometimes they were built so close together, typically in a circular pattern, that there isn't enough room to squeeze between them.

The pyramids are in a necropolis of about 40 hectares (99 acres) that is thought to hold more than 1,000 tombs. One quarter have been found and opened so far, he said.

The structures come in various sizes, with some no more than a metre (yard) high.

All of them were made from mud brick, which wasn't expensive but still required a designer and workmen to construct.

That meant that the poorest people could not afford pyramids but were buried in surrounding pits, he said in his office at Sudan's National Museum.

Archaeologists began work on the site in the 1960s, focusing on a section reserved for princes. But during the past three years they discovered that more common folk had also been buried there.

Little remains, however, of Sedeinga's grandest structure. That was a temple which Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III built for his wife Queen Tiye, grandmother of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen.

It appears to have been heavily damaged during flooding perhaps around 400 or 500 BC, said Rilly, whose team is funded by the French government and the University of Paris-Sorbonne.

Despite the large number of pyramids recently unearthed, little has been found inside because of plundering by tomb raiders, both ancient and modern.

But the robbers missed one tomb that has yielded "a rich site" for archaeologists -- the skeleton of a child buried with four decorative collars and anklets of bronze.

The youngster was four or five years old "and we wondered why they took so much precaution to bury a young child like that," said Rilly.

Egypt occupied northern Sudan for about 500 years until roughly 1,000 BC but its cultural influence faded during the 700-year reign of the Meroe kingdom from about 350 BC.

Inscriptions found in the Sedeinga tombs are in Meroitic, a phonetic writing simplified from the Egyptian.

Rilly, a world expert in the language, said Meroitic is still little understood.

But he has been able to decipher details about the social structure of families, concluding that this part of the necropolis holds "a lot of women."

Many were priestesses of the goddess Isis, of whom Queen Tiye was considered an incarnation.
Read the rest of this post...
[ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>

We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.