Are there more pyramids in Egypt than anywhere else in the world? Well, do not answer too fast, just wait until you discover Sudan. Very much off the beaten track, mysteriously tucked away along the upper Nile that mightily meanders North through the desert of sand and rock, ‘the Sudan’ is often overlooked and yet so rich in history and culture: the kings of Meroë, the empire of Kush, the Black Pharaohs who at times dominated the entire Egyptian world, the traces of invasions by Roman legions, the development of early Christianity which solidly held ground here until driven out by Islam as late as the 13th century. It all turns Sudan into a very rewarding place to visit, and it generously makes up for the fairly harsh travel logistics one somehow expects, one definitely has to deal with more or less every day, and which at the end one gladly dismisses as futile. What remains is the magic...