El-Kurru was one of the royal cemeteries used by the Nubian royal family of Kush and Egypt's 25th Dynasty. It is now located in Northern state, Sudan. Excavated by George Reisner, most of the royal Nubian pyramids date to the early part of the Kushite period, from Alara of Nubia to King Nastasen.
The area is divided into three parts by two wadis. The central section seems to be the oldest and contains several tumulus type tombs that predate the Kingdom of Napata. Reisner thought that the earliest tomb, Tum.1, dated back to the time of Pharaoh Sheshonq I of Ancient Egypt and predates the Kingdom of Napata by some 200 years. At the present scholars think the early cemetery stretches back to the Ramesside period and date the earliest burials to the end of the Twentieth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, although Kendall has reverted his position and now adheres to a dating closer to the one proposed by Reisner.
The highest part of the cemetery contains four tumulus tombs. To the north, across the northern wadi Tum. 6 is located. To the east of the tumuli is a row of at least eight pyramids. One of them partially intrudes on a tumulus tomb.