For my first Financial Times assignment, I photographed the pyramids of the royal city of Meroë, a site of the Kushite kingdom dating from the eighth century BC, are smaller than their Egyptian counterparts in Giza, at roughly 30m high.
But there are many more, about 100 some 200km from Khartoum, though their tops were blown up in 1834 by Italian treasure hunter Giuseppe Ferlini as he plundered their contents.
The site is largely unvisited by outsiders, apart from the odd group of diplomats, aid workers, and young residents of Khartoum. Stepping alone into one of the world’s greatest archaeological sites may be marvellous for one lucky visitor, but it is also testament to the sluggish state of Sudanese tourism.
“This is the biggest concentration of pyramids in the world. You don't see such a number in one place anywhere else,” says Mahmoud Suliman Bashir, the archaeologist who manages the Island of Meroë World Heritage Site. “It is unique in that you have a site just for yourself,” he adds, comparing the experience with that of other sites with pyramids in Egypt and Mexico, usually teeming with global tourists.
Read the full piece by the FT’s Andres Schipani by following this link, or read more in the posts on my Instagram profile.
Travel Story
Travel story about Dakar - New work for Msafiri Magazine
For this month’s Msafiri, the inflight magazine of Kenya Airways, I created the ‘lead travel story’ about Dakar, Senegal, focusing on where to eat, sleep and stay. Above, you can read how I described my trip to the Senegalese capital (some photos are mine, too). To read the whole issue of Msafiri, you can click here!
If you’d like to read more travel stories, you can click here for my piece on Ethiopia (including Lalibela, Gondar, Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar) or click here for my Uganda travel story (focusing on Kampala, Queen Elizabeth National Park and Bwindi).
Travel stories in Ng'aali, the new inflight mag of Uganda Airlines
For the inaugural issue of ‘Ng’aali’, the inflight magazine of the recently launched Uganda Airlines airliner, I created three travel stories about German lion doctor Ludwig Siefert, chimp trekking in Uganda and the Nai Nami Tour experience in Nairobi. You can read the first-mentioned piece above, or check out the whole magazine here, on the Ng’aali website.
My Uganda cover story in Msafiri, the inflight magazine of Kenya Airways
You can now read my ten-page travel story about Uganda in the inflight magazine of Kenya Airways: Msafiri! The piece features an off-trail safari with Uganda Carnivores doctor Ludwig Siefert, a not-so-successful chimpanzee trek in Kalinzu and a spectacular trip to the mountain gorillas of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. I'm also providing some tips on where to eat, where to stay and which spots in Kampala and Entebbe you shouldn't miss. Nearly all photographs were also taken by me!
You can read the whole issue of Msafiri magazine through this link. If you’d like to read more about my work for Msafiri, you can check out this blogpost about my cover shot for the November 2018 edition, or click here to read my Ethiopia travel story of a couple of months ago.
I'm a Hero Traveler Contributor
I partnered up with New York based advertising and new media agency Hero Group, the company behind the all-new travel app Hero Traveler! As one of their ‘Contributors’, I have created three travel stories about Uganda, Petra (Jordan) and Zeeland (The Netherlands).
You can check out the stories, pictures and videos through the desktop version of Hero Traveler, but I advise you to download Hero Traveler as the story looks way cooler in the app itself.
Kenya Airways magazine Msafiri: read my Ethiopia travel story
For their inflight magazine Msafiri, airliner Kenya Airways asked me to write a travel story about our trip to the Ethiopian Amhara region, where Saskia and I traveled not only to the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, but also the world-famous monolithic churches of Lalibela, the impressive castles of Gondar and the laidback Lake Tana town of Bahir Dar. You can read the ten pages with my photography (i.a.) above, or download the whole PDF of Msafiri Magazine here (also check out the photo book feature of my photo book Streets of New York, on page 69!).