Our first night out of Khartoum was spent camping in Old Dongala. Old Dongola is situated on the east bank of the Nile opposite the Wadi Al-Malik. Originally founded as a fortress, Old Dongola soon grew into a town. With the arrival of Christianity, it became the capital of the Kingdom of Makuria until the … Continue reading
Heading out from Old Dongola, Sudan we drove for hours across the desert… …Until arriving at a small town near the Nile (as all towns in Sudan are). The “town” consisted of just a few homes, but Ramadan, our guide and driver, knew one of the families and so we stopped for a visit: The … Continue reading
I’ve discussed these nomadic wells before, but given that their existence is absolutely essential to the nomadic community, it is worth describing another one. Ramadan spotted this one as we were driving back to Khartoum: The depths of the well… Unlike the last well I described, the water was drawn out of this one by … Continue reading
The small mountain of Jebel Barkal (also known as Gebel Barkal) and the area around it was the capital and spiritual center of the ancient black kingdoms of the Nile for nearly a millennium. Around 1450 BC, the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III extended his empire to the region and considered Jebel Barkal its southern limit. … Continue reading
The focus here is on Amun – King of the gods and god of the wind – and the temple which was constructed in his honor in the ancient city of Naqa. Amun has been associated with the ram and so that is an image in abundance here… After approaching the Temple of Amun on … Continue reading
As opposed to the Elephant Temple we just discussed, the nearby “Lion Temple” or Apedemak Temple might have been a site of pilgrimage. In 1822, when the first European expedition visited the Lion Temple at Musawwarat es-Sufra, except for a few contours of the outer north wall and some columns remaining visible, the temple was … Continue reading
Musawwarat es Sufra (or just Moswarat) is the largest temple complex dating back to the Meroitic Period in Sudan. It consists of two main parts — the Great Enclosure and the Lion Temple of Apedemak. The Great Enclosure, which was mostly built around the third century BC, is a vast structure consisting of low walls, … Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket 