The Western Deffufa is a massive mud brick temple rising approximately 65 feet above the floodplain near Kerma, in northern Sudan, and is believed to be among the oldest mud brick structures in the world. Built by the Kerma culture around c. 2500 BC — roughly contemporaneous with the construction of Egypt's Great Pyramids — it once contained an intricate network of internal chambers and corridors that have since partially collapsed over millennia. The structure served as a religious center for the Kingdom of Kerma, a civilization whose wealth and power have long been underestimated in popular history. Today, the Deffufa stands as an austere but commanding ruin on the banks of the Nile, accessible to visitors willing to make the journey to one of Sudan's less-traveled archaeological zones. Gates traveled here during Season 12 of Expedition Unknown to explore how the Kerma culture fits into the broader story of ancient Kush — and why early Western archaeologists got so much about this site so wrong.
Construction of the Western Deffufa by the Kerma culture, believed to have served as the civilization's primary religious center
Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose I invades Kush territory; the city of Kerma is reportedly burnt to the ground, ending the Kerma kingdom's independence
American archaeologist George Reisner excavates Kerma, incorrectly attributing the Deffufa's construction to Egyptians rather than the indigenous Kerma people
Gates investigates the Deffufa Temple for Expedition Unknown S12E01, exploring the legacy of Kerma and the colonial biases that shaped early interpretations of the site
An expert Gates met on site — whose name is not clearly identified in the available transcript — walked him through the Deffufa's historical context, emphasizing that its construction was contemporaneous with Egypt's Great Pyramid building era. Far from being a peripheral culture, Kerma was a sophisticated, resource-rich civilization whose religious architecture rivaled anything being built in the ancient world at that time. The expert was direct about the implications: 'Five thousand years ago, this was an advanced society.'
The episode gives pointed attention to the complicated legacy of George Reisner, who is described in the transcript as 'the father of Sudanese archaeology' — Harvard-trained and responsible for uncovering nearly every significant Kushite site between 1916 and 1923. But the episode does not let that reputation go unchallenged. Gates' expert notes that Reisner 'robbed the country blind, shipping all of the best finds out of Sudan to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts,' and that his racial and colonial assumptions led him to wrongly conclude that a structure as sophisticated as the Deffufa must have been Egyptian-built. Mainstream archaeology has since firmly rejected that interpretation.
The broader scholarly consensus, as the episode reflects, holds that Kerma was one of the earliest and most powerful urban civilizations in sub-Saharan Africa, and that its wealth derived substantially from gold — much of which flowed northward into Egypt. This complicates popular narratives that treat ancient Egypt as the singular center of African civilization in that era. The Kerma culture predated Egyptian colonial influence in the region and built its own monumental architecture entirely independently.
Gates' episode does not claim to resolve any ongoing archaeological debate, and the transcript suggests the visit was more exploratory than investigative in a forensic sense. What the episode contributed was visibility: bringing a rarely-televised site to a mainstream audience and grounding it in the corrective scholarship that has pushed back against Reisner's colonial-era conclusions. The episode frames the Deffufa not as a mystery to be solved, but as a monument to a civilization that history has repeatedly underestimated.
The Western Deffufa is believed to have been constructed around c. 2500 BC, making it roughly contemporaneous with the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
According to the expert Gates met on site, the Deffufa was at the time of its construction described as the largest structure in sub-Saharan Africa.
George Reisner, the American archaeologist who excavated Kerma from 1916 to 1923, incorrectly attributed the Deffufa to Egyptian builders — a conclusion now understood to reflect colonial-era biases rather than archaeological evidence.
Much of ancient Egypt's gold supply is believed to have originated in Kush, making the Kingdom of Kerma a critical economic force in the ancient world — even as its contributions were long overlooked in Western scholarship.
The Deffufa Temple is located near the modern town of Kerma in northern Sudan, and is generally accessible to visitors, though travel to Sudan requires advance planning around visa requirements and current regional advisories — check your government's travel guidance before visiting. The site is an open-air ruin, and visitors can typically walk around the exterior of the mud brick structure, though interior access may be limited depending on ongoing preservation efforts.
Kerma is the nearest town; Khartoum, Sudan's capital, is approximately 500 kilometers to the south and serves as the primary international gateway.
The cooler months between November and February are generally considered the most comfortable time to visit northern Sudan, when daytime temperatures are more manageable for outdoor site exploration. Summer months can bring extreme heat to this part of the Nile Valley.
Kingdom of Kush Pyramid Tombs
The Kingdom of Kush Pyramid Tombs are part of the same Kushite civilization Gates explores at Kerma, representing a later phase of the culture that built the Deffufa.
Ancient Egyptian tomb (Moses investigation)
Gates' investigation of ancient Egyptian sites connects directly to the Deffufa episode's central theme — that Kush, not Egypt, was the source of much of the ancient world's gold and cultural power.
Guatemala Snake King Archaeological Sites
Like Kerma, the Guatemala Snake King sites represent a powerful ancient civilization that was long underestimated and misattributed by early Western archaeologists, a recurring theme in Gates' work.