Drinking from the Nile

Some friends and I drove three hours north of Khartoum, Sudan, to check out the Nubian pyramids of Meroe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_pyramids).  The site is only 60 miles north of Khartoum, but the roads are bad, which increases the time it takes to reach the pyramids.

After three hours of bumpy roads we all needed a bathroom, so we used the "bathroom" near the pyramids.  It was actually very clean and did not smell bad at all.  I was told these pyramids receive an average of only 1000 visitors per year.  Perhaps that explains why the bathrooms remain clean.

All of the camel owners were ready for some business.

Sudan has far more pyramids than Egypt, but they are much smaller and largely unknown to the world.

A team of Germans engineers (with Qatari financing) is currently helping to restore some of the pyramids.

Well-preserved, ancient Facebook posts.  King:  "Built another pyramid this week."  Queen:  "Went skinny-dipping in the Nile with my maids last night."

Talking to our guide.

"Pick my camel!"

I picked Abd-al-Aleem's camel, whose name is Faris.  Faris is six years old.

We stopped for lunch at the "Italian Village," which is located 1/2-mile from the pyramids.

Inside the Italian Village.

On a boat at the spot where the two Nile rivers (Blue Nile and White Nile) converge.

The captain let me drive a bit.  At one point he turned to me and said, "Did you know that the Nile River is the only river in the world from which you can still drink?  It is very pure water."  I thought, "Sure, buddy, if you want to end up in the hospital."  He went to the back of the boat, filled up a water bottle straight from the river, and proceeded to drink.  Then he offered the bottle to me.  I said, "My friend, you know American stomachs.  Very weak."  The White Nile and Blue Nile converge right in the middle of a large city (Khartoum, Sudan), where all kinds of garbage and sewage is dumped, and where people and animals bathe and excrete waste.  Yummy.

Sunset on the Nile