Before the Nile flows into Egypt it passes the crumbling remains of a civilisation that once lay at the heart of African trade and culture. Not the land of the Pharaohs but the ancient land of Kush, the old kingdom of the Meroitic kings, lost for centuries amongst the sands of the Sahara to the south of the great cataracts. Amongst the landscapes of northern Sudan, we find the ancient lands of Nubia, where the desert plains are strewn with an incredible collection of archaeological sites that lie far beyond the tourist trappings of Egypt’s well-trodden Nile Valley. Here we find the remains of a civilisation whose culture and power were equal to that of the Pharaohs and whose lasting legacy is an incredible assembly of pyramids that outnumber even those of their northern neighbour.