Meroe archaeological remains threatened by flooding in Sudan

The rainy season in Sudan has become more complicated than usual. The flooding of the Nile River this year threatens to inundate an ancient archaeological site at Al-Bajrawiya. The riverbed has been at its highest level for more than 100 years. 

Archaeological teams have installed sandbag walls and are pumping water to prevent damage to the ruins at Al-Bajrawiya. The area includes the famous pyramids of Meroe, a UNESCO World Heritage site. "These ruins are part of a royal city of the Merotic Empire and are two millennia old," explained Marc Maillot, head of the French Archaeological Unit

Alarms have been raised throughout the country and the Government of Sudan has declared a state of emergency for three months. The Executive has defined the country as a "natural crisis area" after the heavy rains and floods that have hit its territory for more than a month left 99 dead and 100,000 homes damaged.

The Minister of Labour and Social Development, Lina al-Sheikh, has announced that rainfall has affected 16 of the country's 18 states since July. The number of people affected has also risen to half a million.
 

The rainy season in Sudan starts in June and lasts until October. Sudanese farmers on the banks of the Nile depend on these annual floods. But water levels have risen much more than usual this year, reaching villages, homes, roads and archaeological sites.

"The situation is currently under control, but if the level of the Nile continues to rise, the measures taken will be inefficient," Maillot warned, noting that the archaeological remains are about 500 metres from the river.

Faisal Mohammed Saleh, Sudan's Minister of Information and Culture, visited the island of Meroe to see the work being done. The site, some 200 kilometres northeast of Khartoum, was the capital of an empire that controlled vast tracts of land from 350 BC to 350 AD.

The area of the Nile Valley, known as Nubia, has been home to three Cushite kingdoms during ancient times. These civilisations competed strongly with Egypt and, in fact, built more pyramids than their northern neighbour. Most of these sites are unexplored and floods threaten a still virgin archaeological heritage.