14 DAY TRIAL // Over the past few years, a team of archaeologists working with the British Museum have kept busy excavating the site of the ancient town of Gematon in Sudan.
They started work on this project in 1998 and have since unearthed a total of 16 pyramids estimated to date back to around 2,000 years ago.
The pyramids, some made of stone and others made of mud brick, appear to be the work of Kushites, a people that thrived in the region around the year 800 BC.
The long lost Kingdom of Kush, positioned on the confluence of the Blue Nile, the White Nile and the River Atbara, collapsed around the 4th century AD.
Apparently, Kushites had quite a soft spot for pyramids and kept building such structures all throughout Sudan until the last years of their civilization, historians say.
The newly found pyramids are quite impressive
The 16 pyramids brought to light by the British Museum archaeologists were discovered at the site of a cemetery in the ancient town of Gematon.
“So far, we've excavated 6 made out of stone and 10 made out of mud brick,” researcher Derek Welsby detailed in an interview, as cited by IBT.
The largest of the structures had a base measuring around 10.6 meters (34.7 feet) across and stood an estimate 14 meters (46 feet) tall when in one piece.
The research team have also found tombs under the pyramids. Some were clearly built for the rich, but others were meant for lower class individuals.
“They're not just the upper-elite burials,” explained archaeologist Derek Welsby.
Inside one of the tombs, the researchers found an offering table engraved with the image of a priest or maybe a prince presenting gifts to the god Osiris, ruler of the underworld.
Another ancient deity, Isis, is also shown near Osiris. Although these two deities originated in Ancient Egypt, they were also worshiped in the Kingdom of Kush in those days.
