Zuma lies on the Nile in northern Sudan, near the town of Merowe, close to the Fourth Cataract, and its tombs are a reminder that this was once the heartland of a Nubian empire. From about the eighth century BC the kings of Kush, based at Napata, ruled both their own country and Egypt, as the 25th Dynasty, and later retreated south and built their capital at Meroe. When they died, the kings of Napata were buried under pyramids. At El-Zuma, a group of royal tombs, mounds and pyramids lies in the desert on the west bank, and nearby Nuri holds the greater pyramids of the kings. Nearby Nuri and Jebel Barkal are part of a UNESCO listing of the Napatan region, made in 2003.
The desert here is stark and beautiful, a plain of pale sand and dark rock under a huge sky. The Nile cuts through it in a green band of date palms, fields and mud-brick villages, and the contrast between the water and the dunes is startling. Heat is intense through most of the year, and the wind blows sand across the roads. From November to February the temperatures are bearable, with cool mornings, and that is the season for travel.
Be honest about the present: Sudan has been in the grip of armed conflict since April 2023, and travel in much of the country is dangerous and often impossible. Foreign governments advise against travel, and anyone dreaming of this route should check up-to-date information and wait for the situation to improve. In better times, the road along the Nile from Khartoum to Merowe, on a modern highway, was a quiet, fast run through the desert, with a few sharp bends and some checkpoints.
Merowe, thirteen kilometres away, is a town of ten thousand people, with fuel and a market, and has grown since the building of the Merowe Dam, which created a long lake upstream and displaced local communities. Kuraymah, on the opposite side, is larger. In normal times, tea sellers and food stalls along the road offered fried fish, lentils and flat bread, and the people were famous for their hospitality to strangers.