Sudan
Gebel Barkal
Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region are testimony to the important ancient culture of the Second Kingdom of Kush.
Gebel Barkal was believed to be the residence of the State God Amon and is still considered a sacred mountain. The five archaeological sites set on the banks of the Nile include unique funerary architecture (with and without pyramids), temples, living complexes and palaces. The walls of the structures are decorated with reliefs, writings and painted scenes.
Community Perspective: “You are likely to be the only tourists there,.. you could almost be a 19c explorer reaching the sites for the first time!” El-Kurru (with painted tombs) and Nuri (pyramid fields) are two of the other components worth visiting besides Gebel Barkal itself.
Site Info
Official Information
- Full Name
- Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region (ID: 1073)
- Country
- Sudan
- Status
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Inscribed 2003
Site history
History of Gebel Barkal
- WHS Type
- Cultural
- Criteria
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- vi
Links
- UNESCO
- whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
- whc.unesco.org — whc.unesco.org/
Related Resources
- jebelbarkal.org — A guide for visitors
- oi.uchicago.edu — Photographs
- learningsites.com — Link
News Article
- May 6, 2014 english.ahram.org.eg — Sudan pyramid hunt at El-Kurrugets Qatari funding
- April 2, 2014 straitstimes.com — Ancient statues stolen from museum Jebel Barkal
Community Information
- Community Category
- Archaeological site: Egyptian
Travel Information
Recent Connections
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Red Zone Travel Advisory
Sudan fully off-limits -
Untranslated Toponyms
Holy Mountain or similar: Gebel / Jebel… -
In Video Games
Civilization VI
Connections of Gebel Barkal
- Individual People
- Geography
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Sahara
Lies in the Sahara desert ecoregionSee en.wikipedia.org
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Nile
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- Trivia
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In Video Games
Civilization VI
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- Ecology
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Table Mountain
Djebel Barkal is described variously as a "table topped mountain", a Mesa or a Butte - see
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- Architecture
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Rock Cut Architecture
"rock-cut burials and temples" (AB ev)
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- World Heritage Process
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Slow Starters
1974-2003 : 29 years -
Derived from more than one TWHS
Gebel Barkal and El Kurru -
First inscriptions
Sudan 2003
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- Religion and Belief
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Axis Mundi
See en.wikipedia.org
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Horse Burials
At El Kurru "some 120 meters to the north-west of pyramids K.51-K.55 four rows of graves were found which contained horse burials. The rows contained four, eight, eight and four graves respectively.... The tombs had all been robbed, but enough remained to determined that the horses were all buried in an upright position. The horses were buried with all their trappings" (Wiki) -
Sacred Mountains
Jebel Barkal means 'holy mountain' in Arabic, it was believed to be the home of the god Amun (Sudan Bradt Guide)
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- Human Activity
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Historical Graffiti
William Arnold Bromfield, Letters from Egypt, London 1856, p. 122 (Gebel Berkel): "We found very few memorials of European travellers upon these pyramids, so we held ourselves excused in gratifying the national predilection for this way of acquiring immortality, by carving our names enclosed in an oval or cartouche, and each name again separately on different pyramids. Mine. I cut at full length, and in large roman letters, with month and year, inside one of the porches, the roof of which was badly painted with lotus wreaths, just over the name of PRINCE PUCKLER MUSKAU, who has left no memorial of the date of his visit." -
Mummies
Most tombs emptied but eg one mummy found at Nuri c1984 by thieves who were apprehended.
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- Constructions
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Necropolises
"Later Napatan pyramids were sited at Nuri, on the west bank of the Nile in Upper Nubia. This necropolis was the burial place of 21 kings and 52 queens and princes. The oldest and largest pyramid at Nuri is that of the Napatan king and twenty-fifth dynasty pharaoh Taharqa. The most extensive Nubian pyramid site is at Meroe, which is located between the fifth and sixth cataracts of the Nile, approximately one hundred kilometres north of Khartoum. During the Meroitic period over forty kings and queens were buried there." -
Pyramids
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Dynastic Burial Places
"Later Napatan pyramids were sited at Nuri, on the west bank of the Nile in Upper Nubia. This necropolis was the burial place of 21 kings and 52 queens and princes. The oldest and largest pyramid at Nuri is that of the Napatan king and twenty-fifth dynasty pharaoh Taharqa. The most extensive Nubian pyramid site is at Meroe, which is located between the fifth and sixth cataracts of the Nile, approximately one hundred kilometres north of Khartoum. During the Meroitic period over forty kings and queens were buried there." -
Hypogea
AB evaluation Unlike the Egyptian pyramids which were built to enclose and hide the burial chamber,the Napatan ones are commemorative monuments to the deceased, buried in a hypogeum underneath. In front of the pyramid a small temple was built, for offerings.
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- WHS on Other Lists
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World Monuments Watch (past)
2022: NuriSee www.wmf.org
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World Monuments Watch (past)
Gebel Barkal, Karima (2000)
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- Timeline
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Built in the 8th century BC
Gebel Barkal consists of 5 sites mainly from the Napatan and Meroitic culture of the 2nd Kushite Kindom between 8C BC until 4C AD, together with some earlier Egyptian remains at Jebel Barkal from their period of rule over Kush, pre-Napatan tombs at El Kurru from 9C BC and some post-Meroitic remains at Zuma through to 6C AD. By 3C BC the royal burial grounds had been transferred to Meroe. GB would best be described as '1st millennium BC'. The chosen 'century' represents the commencement of the Napatan period
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- Science and Technology
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Digitized by Iconem
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Astronomy and Astrology
Orientation of the temples and pyramids, celestial diagram
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- Visiting conditions
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Red Zone Travel Advisory
Sudan fully off-limits
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- WHS Names
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Named after a Mountain
Jebel Barkal is a small mountain, 98 meters tall -
Untranslated Toponyms
Holy Mountain or similar: Gebel / Jebel means mountain in Arabic, Barkal isn't of Arabic origin, but possibly Nubian, meaning sacred, holy or pure.
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News
- english.ahram.org.eg 05/06/2014
- Sudan pyramid hunt at El-Kurrugets…
- straitstimes.com 04/02/2014
- Ancient statues stolen from museum…
Recent Visitors
Reserved for members.Community Reviews
Show full reviews
I organized my December 2019 trip to Sudan with ITC Sudan and stayed at their Nubian Rest Camp near the foot of Jebel Barkal and Meroe Camp overlooking the pyramid field. I stayed at Acropole Hotel in Khartoum at the beginning and end of my trip, and in between visited Jebel Barkal, a holy mountain surrounded by the ruins of two thirteenth century BCE temples and some of the most intact, yet lightly visited, pyramids in Sudan, erected between the third and first centuries BCE; Nuri in northern Sudan, a component of the Jebel Barkal WHS, where more than twenty ancient pyramids that served as a necropolis for Nubian kings and queens still stand near the Nile, and where visitors should be mindful of the presence of deadly, deathstalker scorpions (their real common name); Meroë, an ancient city along the eastern bank of the Nile and home to hundreds of Nubian pyramids; the Temple of Apedemak at Naqa, dating from the first century CE and one of the largest ruined sites in Sudan; and Musawarat es-Sufra, a large temple complex dating back to the third century BCE. My visit to Sudan was much easier than I expected, from procuring a visa (which only took a few days, far shorter than I had been led to believe), to travel (with empty roads and even emptier sites), to safety (I wandered by myself around Khartoum, the first African capital where no one offered to be my guide, told me they were from …
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Gebel Barkal was Nubia's Holy Mountain. Its size and shape appealed so much to exploring Ancient Egyptians who came down the Nile, that they started building temples at its foot. It remained a sanctuary to the god Amun for centuries, from the Egyptian "colonization" to the time of the Black Pharaohs when the local Nubian rulers took control over South Egypt and moved their capital to Meroë.
Although the main Amun Temple looks to be well-excavated nowadays, I was amazed at the level of archaeological work still going on. Two teams were busy when I visited: an international group under the guidance of the Sudanese Ministry of Antiquities and an Italian-led group. The Italians were focusing on a building which is being excavated for the first time, although it lies right next to the Amun Temple and also directly at the foot of the mountain.
There were no other people around besides the archaeologists when we visited during the day, but some 50 locals and international tourists showed up later to watch the sunset from the top of the mountain. To me, the site's highlights include the still erect pillars topped with serpents symbolizing the goddess Hathor (see picture below), the hieroglyphs on the column fragments that have fallen down, the finely carved interior of the Temple of Mut, and the small pyramid field at the far end of the archaeological zone.
Some 10 km from Gebel Barkal, on the outskirts of a small village, lies El …
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I visited jebel barkal and karima in 1988. At the time I was not aware of the temples and town which did not appear to have been excavated yet. However, the pyramids were easy to find and climbing up onto the jebel was easy. Children guided me around the jebel as there were no tourists nor kiosk. nothing really. However, two half buried panthers were discernable. At the time I thought they were sphinxes but National Geographic did an article indicating they were panthers. Being there in 1988 was a priceless experience and perhaps more intimate than visiting the archeological sites in Egypt. And getting to Karima was quite an adventure. There was no road and the train took an arduous 40 hours. Getting from Karima to Aswan took about 18 days.
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For a range of historic and logistical reasons the “Egyptian” ruins of Sudan are considerably less known than those of Egypt proper. Books on Egyptian archaeology rarely give more than a few lines to the sites south of Abu Simbel. Whilst Meroe (only on Sudan’s tentative list) is my favourite Sudanese site the inscribed site of Jebel Barkal is well worth visiting. As at all Sudan’s sites you are likely to be the only tourists there (what a contrast to Egypt!) and the atmosphere is heightened by the encroaching desert sand – you could almost be a 19c explorer reaching the sites for the first time!
The UNESCO “site” of Jebel Barkal consists of 5 locations. The “main” one is the “table topped” mountain of Jebel Barkal itself which is only around 100 metres high but dominates the flat Nile valley for miles around. Even though it was for long periods outside their area of direct control it was believed by the Ancient Egyptians to be the home of the god Amun. This was possibly because of sandstone pillar at one end (photo) which could be regarded as looking like a “Uraeus” (the cobra symbol of kingship). At the base of this and symbolically cut into the mountain lies a cave containing a temple to Mut the bride of Amun. Inside is a statue of the dwarf god Bes the protector god who helped in childbirth and promoted fertility. Below the Jebel are the ruins of a Temple to Amun …
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