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Description
The pyramid of the Meroitic Queen Shanakdakheto (c. 170-150 B.C.)(N.Beg.11) is one of the most magnificent of the Northern Necropolis at Meroë, thanks to the double-pylons of her mortuary chapel. Shanakdakheto was qore and candace of Meroë, a queen in her own right in a culture where women could rise to supreme power (and, if some historians are to be believed, actually ruled a matriarchal society and outranked the king). Unfortunately, little is known about her reign apart from inscriptions and statues of her showing up at Naqa.

The pyramids of Meroë are the latest examples of this type of Burial in the era: they were built some 2300 centuries after the famous tombs at Giza, meaning that the Meroitic tombs are actually closer to us in time than to the burials of Cheops (Khufu) and his contemporaries. It is believed, based on some material found in the 1st-century-B.C. writer Didodorus Siculus, that the cemetery was founded by King Ergamenes I (Arakamani), who, in around 270 B.C., decided to stop following an ancient tradition that required him to die:

Of all their customs the most astonishing is that which obtains in connection with the death of their kings. For the priests at Meroë who spend their time in the worship of the gods and the rites which do them honour, being the greatest and most powerful order, whenever the idea comes to them, dispatch a messenger to the king with orders that he die. For the gods, they add, have revealed this to them, and it must be that the command of the immortals should in no wise be disregarded by one of mortal frame. And this order they accompany with other arguments, such as are accepted by a simple-minded nature, which has been bred in a custom that is both ancient and difficult to eradicate and which knows no argument that can be set in opposition to commands enforced by no compulsion. Now in former times the kings would obey the priests, having been overcome, not by arms nor by force, but because their reasoning powers had been put under a constraint by their very superstition; but during the reign of the second Ptolemy the king of the Ethiopians, Ergamenes, who had had a Greek education and had studied philosophy, was the first to have the courage to disdain the command. For assuming a spirit which became the position of a king he entered with his soldiers into the unapproachable place where stood, as it turned out, the golden shrine of the Ethiopians, put the priests to the sword, and after abolishing this custom thereafter ordered affairs after his own will. (Diodorus Siculus III.6.1-4).

Also visible on this image are the remains of the mortuary temple of the vanished pyramid 10 (unidentified occupant), to the left; the pyramid behind that of Shanakdakheto (12) belongs to King Taneyidamani (100 B.C.), at least according to the information in the museum at Meroë: the internet tells us that no pyramid has been assigned this king. Behind that one, pyramid 13 can still be seen: it belongs to Naqyrinsan, the successor of Taneyidamani. The heap of stones in front of the first pylon is all that remains of pyramid 40 (unidentified occupant), and on the right, the slope of number 20 (King ...kanakht) is still visible.

The Pyramids of Meroe are found in the Sudan, and are part of the Unesco World Heritage Sites.

Description
The pyramid of the Meroitic Queen Shanakdakheto (c. 170-150 B.C.)(N.Beg.11) is one of the most magnificent of the Northern Necropolis at Meroë, thanks to the double-pylons of her mortuary chapel. Shanakdakheto was qore and candace of Meroë, a queen in her own right in a culture where women could rise to supreme power (and, if some historians are to be believed, actually ruled a matriarchal society and outranked the king). Unfortunately, little is known about her reign apart from inscriptions and statues of her showing up at Naqa.

The pyramids of Meroë are the latest examples of this type of Burial in the era: they were built some 2300 centuries after the famous tombs at Giza, meaning that the Meroitic tombs are actually closer to us in time than to the burials of Cheops (Khufu) and his contemporaries. It is believed, based on some material found in the 1st-century-B.C. writer Didodorus Siculus, that the cemetery was founded by King Ergamenes I (Arakamani), who, in around 270 B.C., decided to stop following an ancient tradition that required him to die:

Of all their customs the most astonishing is that which obtains in connection with the death of their kings. For the priests at Meroë who spend their time in the worship of the gods and the rites which do them honour, being the greatest and most powerful order, whenever the idea comes to them, dispatch a messenger to the king with orders that he die. For the gods, they add, have revealed this to them, and it must be that the command of the immortals should in no wise be disregarded by one of mortal frame. And this order they accompany with other arguments, such as are accepted by a simple-minded nature, which has been bred in a custom that is both ancient and difficult to eradicate and which knows no argument that can be set in opposition to commands enforced by no compulsion. Now in former times the kings would obey the priests, having been overcome, not by arms nor by force, but because their reasoning powers had been put under a constraint by their very superstition; but during the reign of the second Ptolemy the king of the Ethiopians, Ergamenes, who had had a Greek education and had studied philosophy, was the first to have the courage to disdain the command. For assuming a spirit which became the position of a king he entered with his soldiers into the unapproachable place where stood, as it turned out, the golden shrine of the Ethiopians, put the priests to the sword, and after abolishing this custom thereafter ordered affairs after his own will. (Diodorus Siculus III.6.1-4).

Also visible on this image are the remains of the mortuary temple of the vanished pyramid 10 (unidentified occupant), to the left; the pyramid behind that of Shanakdakheto (12) belongs to King Taneyidamani (100 B.C.), at least according to the information in the museum at Meroë: the internet tells us that no pyramid has been assigned this king. Behind that one, pyramid 13 can still be seen: it belongs to Naqyrinsan, the successor of Taneyidamani. The heap of stones in front of the first pylon is all that remains of pyramid 40 (unidentified occupant), and on the right, the slope of number 20 (King ...kanakht) is still visible.

The Pyramids of Meroe are found in the Sudan, and are part of the Unesco World Heritage Sites.