The archaeological site to which they belong, along with the royal city of the Kushite kings at Meroe, near the Nile River, and the nearby religious sites of Naqa and Musawwarat es Sufra, was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2011, under the designation of archaeological sites of the island of Meroe.

The pyramids of Meroe are divided into three groupings. On the one hand the southern cemetery, with a total of 9 pyramids; on the other hand the northern cemetery with 41 pyramids and finally the western cemetery, with approximately 113 constructions. They are part of the largest group of Nubian pyramids, built in the time of the Kingdom of Kush during a period close to a millennium.

The amazing pyramids are one of the highlights of the archaeological site. There are also other pyramid remains at the archaeological sites of El Kurru and Jebel Barkal also belonging to the Kingdom of Kush, also known as Nubia. With more than 200 pyramids, it is one of the largest pyramid sites in the world, surpassing in number those of Egypt.

The Nubian pyramids are clearly influenced by Ancient Egypt, as the Kingdom of Kush adopted much of the beliefs and material culture of its northern neighbor, especially at the beginning of the Nubian state.

This powerful nation that existed from around 800 BC to 350 AD buried its kings and queens in the same manner as Egypt did with its pharaohs, worshipping the Egyptian funerary divinities Osiris, Isis and Anubis. These divinities are mentioned again and again in the Nubian funerary texts.

With clearly smaller dimensions than those of Egypt, the Nubian pyramids rarely exceed 30 meters in height, with narrower and steeper shapes than the Egyptian ones. Nubian pyramids have a square base like Egyptian pyramids, but the ratio between the height and width of the base is different, resulting in a more pointed shape.

Like the Egyptian pyramids, the Nubian pyramids served as tombs for kings and queens. However, while Egyptian pyramids contain burial chambers within the pyramid structure itself, Nubian pyramids are funerary monuments built on top of subway tombs.

The entrance to the tomb is usually at ground level and leads to a burial chamber under the pyramid, through the so-called pylon, a small funerary temple connected to the pyramid with internal walls decorated with bas-reliefs, depicting Kushite rulers and offering scenes to the gods.

They were discovered to the Western world around 1830 by the French mineralogist Friedrich Cailliaud, who visited and documented them, thus providing the first detailed record of them. In the 19th century, the pyramids of Meroe suffered considerable damage at the hands of the Italian adventurer Giuseppe Ferlini, who plundered the pyramids in search of treasure and left many of them in ruins.

Finally, systematic archaeological work at Meroe did not begin until the 20th century, carried out mainly by British and German archaeologists. The site remains the subject of research and study to this day, and although not widely known, it represents a major tourist destination in Sudan.

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