Afrinkong
The Great Bend
The Nile turns southwest for three hundred kilometres here, against every expectation.
Photo AXP Photography / Pexels
SUDAN · Tourism
The Pyramids of Meroe
Two hundred Nubian pyramids at Meroe and Nuri, the Nile making its great bend through desert, and a Red Sea coast with reefs nobody dives — a country with an extraordinary past and a hard present.
North AfricaRegion
27Tourism experiences
More pyramids than EgyptKnown for
01
Featured destinations
Where the country actually takes you.
MountainsThe Red Sea Hills and Jebel Marra
Granite hills behind Port Sudan, and a volcanic crater lake on Jebel Marra in Darfur.
Photo Djamel Ramdani / Pexels
The Cataracts
Six of them on the Nile, rapids where the river crosses granite, and boats have to portage.
Photo Diego F. Parra / Pexels
The Blue and the White
They meet at Khartoum, one clear and one brown, and you can see the line between them.
Photo Ahmed Aziz / Pexels
Beaches & CoastReefs Nobody Dives
Sanganeb atoll and Sha'ab Rumi, where Cousteau sank Conshelf II and the coral grew over it.
Photo Daniel Shipilov / Pexels
Forests & RainforestAcacia and Doum Palm
Gum arabic comes from the acacia belt across the middle of the country. Most of the world's does.
Photo 哲聖 林 / Pexels
02
Wildlife & safari
What lives here, and how you see it without disturbing it.
Wildlife
Dinder and the Red Sea
Dinder on the Ethiopian border holds lion, giraffe and roan; the reefs hold everything else.
Photo Alex Levis / Pexels
SafariDinder
One of Africa's oldest national parks, and one of the least visited on the continent.
Photo Balazs Simon / Pexels
Eco TourismGum Arabic and the Acacia Belt
A gum tapped from wild acacia by hand, in most of the soft drinks in the world.
Photo Engin Akyurt / Pexels
03
Culture & heritage
The part of a country you cannot photograph from a vehicle.
Culture
Nubian, Arab, Beja
Nubian along the northern Nile, Beja in the Red Sea hills, and nearly six hundred groups altogether.
The Nubians
The Nubian villages along the northern Nile paint their houses, and have done for a very long time.
Photo Sani Maikatanga / Pexels
Food & CuisineFul and Kisra
Ful medames for breakfast everywhere, kisra sorghum flatbread, and coffee spiced with ginger.
Sufi Friday at Omdurman
The Hamed al-Nil tomb, every Friday at sunset, drumming and whirling for two hours.
Photo Zeynep Kahraman / Pexels
Traditional Arts & CraftsBasketry and Silver
Coiled palm baskets from the north, Beja swords, and silver from the Omdurman souk.
Photo Magda Ehlers / Pexels
Historic SitesMeroe, Nuri and El-Kurru
Three royal cemeteries of the Kingdom of Kush, which ruled Egypt for a century.
Photo AXP Photography / Pexels
HeritageKush
Gebel Barkal was the holy mountain of two kingdoms, and the temple of Amun is cut into it.
04
Cities & everyday life
Where people actually live between the landmarks.
CitiesKhartoum and Omdurman
Two cities facing each other across the confluence, one colonial grid and one enormous souk.
Photo Mathias Dargnat / Pexels
ArchitectureMud Brick and Painted Doors
Nubian vaulted mud-brick houses with painted gates, a technique revived by Hassan Fathy.
Photo Dr Photographer / Pexels
The Camel Market
Omdurman's camel market on a Saturday, with animals in from Kordofan and Darfur.
Family & CommunityThe Nile at Tuti
The island in the confluence, farmed, walkable, and reached by ferry from three sides.
Photo Diego F. Parra / Pexels
05
Adventure & outdoors
For travellers who would rather walk it than watch it.
Adventure
Diving and Desert Driving
Liveaboards out of Port Sudan, and four-wheel-drive routes between the pyramid fields.
Walking Between Pyramids
There is no fence at Meroe. You walk in off the sand and up the ridge.
Photo Esra Erdem / Pexels
Luxury TravelVery Little
A handful of Red Sea liveaboards, and camps at Meroe. That is the whole of it.
Photo Hani ryad / Pexels
06
Travel inspiration
The frames people come home with.
Photography / Scenic ViewsPyramids and Dunes
Meroe an hour after dawn, when the sand is still ridged and the shadows are long.
Old Dongola
A Christian Nubian capital on the Nile, with a throne hall that became a mosque.
Why Visit This Country
Why Sudan
More pyramids than Egypt, no queue at any of them, and a welcome people write books about.
Why Sudan
More pyramids than Egypt, no queue at any of them, and a welcome people write books about.
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