The Pyramids of Kush

1. Do you know which country has the most pyramids? It isn't Egypt.
2. Sudan. The Kingdom of Kush built over two hundred at Meroë, steep and narrow, for its kings and queens.
3. Its queens fought Rome and buried a bronze head of the emperor under a temple doorstep, so worshippers stepped on it.
4. Most have no tops. An Italian treasure hunter blew them off in the eighteen thirties, hunting for gold.
5. Why do you think nobody taught you this?

The Nubian desert at Meroë at golden hour: a field of steep, narrow pyramids, most with their tops gone. A Kushite queen walks the royal cemetery. At a temple doorway a bronze head is lowered into a pit under the doorstep, the slab set over it, and worshippers walk in over it. Then a man in a hat far off pushes a plunger and the top of a pyramid bursts into blocks and dust, gold glinting in the rubble.