Travel Goals

I like to make travel goals.  Places to go, things to do.  Some of mine are obvious, some obscure.  I have now set a new goal, and I think its worth sharing.

I want to find the grave of Giuseppe Ferlini and pee on it.  Perhaps I should explain.

Recently, we visited the Nubian Pyramids at Meroe in Sudan.  I have read about these often on the internet,  Whenever you see a list of the worlds greatest, least visited attractions, they are on the list.  Its hard to get to Sudan, and they really don't have much in the way of tourist infrastructure, so visiting this site is very difficult indeed.  But already living in Khartoum gives us a leg up, so for us it was an easy over night experience.

These pyramids are indeed worth a visit.  (I already want to go back)  They were built by Nubian kings between 700 BC and 300 AD.  Compared to Egyptian pyramids, they are smaller, steeper and more numerous.  Egyptian pyramids rise at an angle of about 40-50 degree.  Nubian are around 70.

These pyramids were unknown to Europeans until Frenchman Frédéric Cailliaud discovered them in 1821 and reported they were mostly intact.  But when you look at the picture I took you can see they are not intact at all.  Most of them are missing their tops.  On the left of this picture there is a missing pyramid.  Only the base of it is there.  What happened?

In 1834 Italian "archaeologist" Giuseppe Ferlini visited the site.  I put that in quotes because he was really a treasure hunter and grave robber.  He wanted to find the valuable objects that are usually buried with kings and sell them.  He completely destroyed the pyramid at the left, and damaged many others.

He did find some treasures, but had a hard time selling them.  Most buyers in Europe thought they were fake because they did not believe such high quality artifacts could have been produced by black Africans.  Eventually, they were bought and today are in a museum in Germany, giving me yet another travel goal.

So if you ever find yourself in Bologna, Italy, go to the Certosa di Bologna, find the grave of Giuseppe Ferlini, and give him my regards.

By Khruner - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44484066