
A New Look at the Little-Known Pyramids of Ancient Nubia - prismatic
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/meroe-pyramids-sudan-photography
======
robk
It is truly a beautiful place. So vast and empty. Here are the pics I took
[https://secure.flickr.com/photos/robk/sets/72157635153819347...](https://secure.flickr.com/photos/robk/sets/72157635153819347/)

~~~
gcb0
curious what the surrounds of this look like
[https://m.flickr.com/deep/photos/54539963@N00/9557054418](https://m.flickr.com/deep/photos/54539963@N00/9557054418)

or do watermelons grow in a desert?

~~~
vram22
Maybe somewhat counter-intuitively, vegetables & fruits like melons,
watermelons, cucumbers, etc. (that contain a lot of water), often grow well in
dry- _looking_ sandy soil. I think it may be partly because the soil is loose,
so their roots can go deeper more easily, to reach the water below. As a
result, I've often seen and heard of these plants growing or being grown near
rivers and lakes, even somewhat far away from the water's edge, because there
is water below, in the water table.

Source: I did a lot of gardening in my teens and also read a lot about it.

------
Saad_M
In the article it’s noted that the digital camera couldn’t handle the fine
dust and sand of Sudan, whereas the film camera did. Are there digital cameras
can handle such difficult environmental conditions?

~~~
_cereal
If you use tropicalized lenses and cameras then yes, you can handle those
conditions.

~~~
jacobroyquebec
Fuji's has one of the best weather-sealing (dust & rain) in the mirrorless
segment. No idea about the lens he used, but my X-Pro2 survived (rain & snow)
storms, even with a non-tropicalized lens.

I guess sandstorms must be harder for the camera?

~~~
_cereal
I guess it too, it would be nice to have more info about what happened.

------
dkural
Would've been nice to see more photos of the non-reconstructed pyramids. Most
of the photos were either sand or reconstructed pyramids.

~~~
cooper12
They're not so photogenic:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Ferlini#/media/File:S...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Ferlini#/media/File:Sudan_Meroe_Pyramids_30sep2005_3.jpg)

------
red_hairing
hmm...I wonder what kings ruled over these ancient kingdoms?

------
salimmadjd
OT - factoid. The photos in this article were taken by my former CEO,
Christopher Michel. A serial entrepreneur with two exits (Military.com &
Affinity Labs). He then turned into a full time photographer, but still
advises companies, invests in a few and sits on a few boards.

~~~
ludston
A friendly titbit for you: factoids are untrue, unlike titbits.

~~~
ajkjk
That's archaic and not true anymore.

------
juandazapata
This photos look heavily photoshopped.

~~~
gcb0
no photographer today publishes without "post production".

usually sharpening filters and messing up with saturation are the norm.

source: worked with tons of A list art, fashion, news photographers.

~~~
jfindley
There are a couple of moderately well known landscape pros that do. But yes.
I'd also note that this is a MF camera, with (what looks like) drum scanned
film. This tends to produce images with much better color rendition and
improved sharpness and contrast than you'd typically see out of a "normal"
camera. The photographer also appears to have used polarizing filters in at
least one of the shots. Given all this, none of the images look significantly
manipulated to me.

------
stefantalpalaru
The Italian grave robber who destroyed more than 40 pyramids finally found his
treasure, became rich by selling it in Germany and was buried in Bologna's
monumental cemetery, among the city's most important people:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Ferlini](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Ferlini)

