"The underground tomb" a El Kuru Travel Page by uglyscot

El-Kuru is another of the World Heritage sites that comes under Jebel Barkal. It is not as easy to find as is not visible from the road, and anyway there is nothing obvious to see except what looks like a hill of rubble. Once you reach you have to go through narrow streets until you find on your left a fenced enclosure. The ghaffir/ guide will take you to the tomb Tanwetamani, the nephew and successor of Taharqa who ruled Ancient Egypt.
El Kuru was the first of the pyramid sites to be built. there were royal and other simpler tombs with paintings - King Kashta, Piye [Piankhi] , Shabaka, Shabataka, Tanwetamaniand 14 queens. This period is known as Kushite.

The village itself is like most Sudanese villages. In the north they tend to build with mud bricks and whitewash them.
The children were curious about the visitors but did not try to follow us or beg from us . They were more interested in their game of football.

El Kuru is a Kushite site, the earlier of the two ancient Sudanese kingdoms. It was from about 900 BC - 400 BC, contemporary with the Sudanese 25th Dynasty in Egypt [Kings Taharqa and Piankhi etc]. The capital was at Napata. Tanwetamani was in fact the nephew and successor. His mother was Queen Qalata whose tomb is also accessible though we were advised not to go down into it, because it was 'dirty' which my husband said meant it was being used as a toilet in all probability.