Meroë (mĕr`ōē), ancient city in N Sudan, on the east bank of the Nile, N of Khartoum. In the mid-6th cent. B.C., Meroë replaced Napata as the central city of the Cushite dynasty and from 530 B.C. until A.D. 350 served as the capital of the dynasty. By the 1st cent. B.C., Meroë was a major center for iron smelting. It is believed that knowledge of iron casting was carried (7th–10th cent.) from the middle Nile to the middle Niger by a great African overland route. Among Meroë's extensive ruins are royal palaces (6th cent. B.C.) and a temple of Amon. Nearby are cemeteries and three groups of pyramids.

Meroë

City, ancient Cush (Kush), northeastern Africa. Situated on the eastern bank of the Nile River, north of modern Kabushiyah, Sudan, it was the southern administrative centre for the kingdom of Cush (southern Nubia), beginning c. 750 BC. After the sack of Napata (c. 590), it became the capital of the kingdom. It included the region where the Meroitic language was developed. It survived a Roman invasion but fell to Aksumite armies in the 4th century AD. The ruins of its temples and palaces still exist near Kabushiyah.