Khartoum | national capital, Sudan | Britannica.com national capital, Sudan Al-Fāshir Khartoum, Arabic Al-Khurṭūm, (“Elephant’s Trunk”), city , executive capital of The Sudan , just south of the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers. It has bridge connections with its sister towns, Khartoum North and Omdurman , with which it forms The Sudan’s largest conurbation. Originally an Egyptian army camp (pitched 1821), Khartoum grew into a garrisoned army town. The Mahdists besieged and destroyed it in 1885 and killed Major General Charles George Gordon , then the British governor-general of the Sudan. Reoccupied in 1898, Khartoum was rebuilt by Governor-General Lord Kitchener and served as the seat of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan government until 1956, when the city became the capital of the independent republic of The Sudan.

The Republican Palace in Khartoum city, The Sudan Authenticated News International Khartoum is a major trade and communications centre, with rail lines from Egypt , Port Sudan , and Al-Ubayyiḍ , river traffic on the Blue and White Nile rivers, and an international airport. Built along spacious tree-lined avenues, its principal buildings include the palace, parliament, Sudan National Museum, University of Khartoum (formerly Gordon Memorial College, 1902), Nilayn University (formerly the Khartoum Branch of the University of Cairo, 1955), and Sudan University of Science and Technology (1950). There are Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Coptic cathedrals as well as Greek and Maronite churches and several mosques. Besides acting as a trading centre, Khartoum also produces textiles, gums, and glass and serves as a printing and food-processing centre. An oil pipeline between Khartoum and Port Sudan was completed in 1977. Because of immigration from other regions and from western Africa , Khartoum exhibits less of an Arabian cultural influence than its sister towns, even though most of its population speaks Arabic. Pop.

(1983) city, 476,218; metropolitan area, 1,343,651; (1993) city, 924,505; (1990 est.) metropolitan area, 1,950,000. Learn More in these related articles: in Sudan The three towns: Khartoum, North Khartoum and Omdurman | Khartoum, Sudan - Embassy of the United States Khartoum, Sudan - Embassy of the United States About Sudan The three towns: Khartoum, North Khartoum and Omdurman Khartoum is the capital of Sudan and the seat of government. The city of Khartoum is composed of three areas: Khartoum proper; North Khartoum, primarily an industrial area; and Omdurman, once the capital of the Mahdist government. The following is from an article by C. E. J.

Walkly: “The word “Khartoum” means ‘elephant’s trunk’ in the dialect which was spoken locally, the name of the town is probably derived from the narrow strip of land extending between the blue and White Niles, which is like the trunk of an elephant. Captain J. A. Grant who reached Khartoum in 1863 with Captain Speke’s expedition, though that the derivation was most probably from the safflower (Carthamus Tinctorius L.) Which is called ‘Gartoon’, and which was cultivated extensively in Egypt for its oil, used in burning. This explanation is ingenious but has no support”. Excavations have revealed that Khartoum dates back to ancient pre-historic ages. Modern Khartoum is stated to have begun when sheikh Arabab al Agayed inhabited Khartoum in the 17th century. At that time large numbers of his disciples and followers began to gather around him, two of the most prominent being sheikh Hamad Wad Um Marioum and Sheikh Khogali. These two are reputed to have been the founders of Khartoum North.

By 1825, Khartoum has become the capital for the first time under the Turko-Egyptian rule. The Mahdi captured Khartoum in 1885, and moved the capital to Omdurman. When the Mahdi’s rule was brought to an end in 1898, Khartoum was once again made the capital. Lord Kitchener, the Governor General, became actively involved in its planning and besides building large ornate structures, he laid out the streets of Khartoum in the shape of the British flag. According to writer, H. C. Jackson, the origin of the word ‘Omdurman’ is not known for certain. Some say it was called after two small hills (durman) in the neighborhood, and the village was known as the “mother of the two small hills.” Others prefer the story that the place was named after the mother of a man called ‘Durman’, who came from the west many years ago.

He is reputed to have made a fortune, and his mother, an enterprising woman, is said to have started a ferry service between Omdurman, the island of Tutti, the settlements of Halfaya and what was later known as Khartoum. Visitors to these places when asked how they had crossed the river and would reply that they had been brought by “UmmDurman” (the mother of Durman). When Omdurman was the Capital The following was written for this booklet by Prof. Ken Perkins, Fulbright Scholar in Khartoum, in 1983. Since the 1820's, the Sudan has been a part of Egypt, whose rules had extended their way over the region in quest of slaves for their army and a share of the material wealth of Sudan, particularly the ivory trade. Egyptian rule has been oppressive, sapping the human and natural resources of Sudan, but providing no benefits in return. That the Egyptians were like the northern Sudanese, Muslims, made the situation ever more unpalatable to the Sudanese. These were the circumstances which prompted Mohamed Ahmad to launch a rebellion against the Egyptian in 1881.

The uprising was, however, more than a protest against harsh overlordship, for Mohamed Ahmad took for himself the title of “Mahdi”, a word deeply steeped in Islamic religious tradition and signifying “the rightly guided one”, or an individual who was to restore the proper, just tone to the Islamic community. The word also had strong eschatological overtones, in that the Mahdi’s work of purification was to pave the way for the millennium. That Mahdi’s basic assertion was that the Egyptian government in Sudan was an un-Islamic one. A true Islamic government would not react Muslims with the contempt and injustice the Egyptians showed towards the Sudanese, nor would it send Christian governors to rule over Muslims, as the Egyptians had done by hiring European adventurers to administer the Sudanese provinces. Finally, the Sudanese resented Egypt’s efforts to break the slave trade in the country. While urging good treatment of slaves, Islam did not ban the institution. Thus, this Egyptian policy seemed to have no place in an Islamic context. More to the point, the crack down on slaving hurt many Sudanese who were involved in the trade economically, adding a highly material motive to their opposition to Egypt.

All of these conditions had, of course, existed prior to 1881. In that year, however, Egypt was being harried by European creditors who were on the verge of taking control of its government. These difficulties in Cairo prevented the Egyptian government from paying as much attention to the developing crisis in the Sudan as it should have. To stress the religious nature of his movement, Mohamed Ahmed consciously styled his adherents on the associates of the Prophet Mohamed, calling them “ansar” or helpers, just as Mohamed had. He also undertook a “hijra” from his original base on Aba Island in the White Nile to Kordofan Province, as Mohamed had migrated with his followers from Mecca to Medina. Several Egyptian garrisons, most notably that of El Obeid in Kordofan, fell to the Mahdi’s forces. Realizing the magnitude of the Sudanese problem at last, an Egyptian army under the command of British General Hicks was dispatched to put an end to the Mahdist uprising, but was virtually annihilated by Mohamed Ahmed’s forces in 1883, at Shaykan, in Kordofan.

The Hicks debacle led Britain, which had by this time assumed de facto control over Egypt, to demand the withdrawal of the Egyptian forces remaining in Sudan. General Charles Gordon, who had earlier been a governor of one of Sudan’s southern regions, was chosen to execute this task. When Gordon arrived in Khartoum, he realized he could not fulfill his mission without sustaining substantial losses. He was also convinced that the Sudanese people should not be left in the hands of the Mahdi. Thus he remained in Khartoum which soon came under siege by the Mahdists. Gordon’s requests for help were neglected by a British government which did not want to involve itself directly in the Sudan question. Finally, however, in the face of mounting popular pressure, a relief expedition was organized to proceed up the Nile from Egypt. The siege of Khartoum was strengthened, however, and the city fell, and Gordon was killed in the Governor’s Palace in January 1885. The relief forces arrived two days later and, realizing that the Mahdists had triumphed, turned back to Egypt.

The Mahdi did not live long to savor his victory, for by the end of 1885, he, too, was dead, of natural causes. Before his demise, he had begun the process of dismantling Khartoum and moving the Sudan’s center of political gravity across the river to Omdurman. This was to be his capital, with none of associations of the hated Egyptian regime, which Khartoum bore. Abdallahi’s accession to leadership was peaceful, and for the next decade he ruled the country from his headquarters in Omdurman adjacent to the tomb erected for the Mahdi. The Khalifa’s rule was, in some ways, as harsh as the Egyptians, but the 1880's and 1890's saw the gradual growth of a centralized government and a functional bureaucracy. There were also efforts, none very successful, to extend the perimeters of the state - something of a requirement for a militant Islamic government such as the Khalifa’s. (Khalifa means “successor”). The downfall of the Khalifa and the collapse of the Mahdiyya (usually called the Reconquest in Western sources), was stimulated more by events outside the Sudan than within it.

By the mid-1890's, Italy, beginning her colonial venture in Abyssinia, had suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Abyssinians at the Battle of Adowa. The British feared the possibility of a linkage between the victorious Abyssinians and the Khalifa’s forces, which would further diminish all European influence in this part of Africa. Moreover, Britain rivals in the exploration and exploitation of Africa, especially France and Belgium, were showing increased interest in the Upper Nile. Britain felt that it had to control the sources of the Nile, because of the river’s enormous importance to Egypt’s developing agriculture, now under British control. This she could not effectively do with the Khalifa between Egypt and the sources of the Nile. Thus in 1895, the Anglo-Egyptian Army began the slow re-conquest of Sudan. Advancing up the Nile, and laying a railway behind them as they did so, Dongola was taken in 1896. Under the command of the British General Kitchener, the advance continued. A railway was constructed across the desert, cutting the great bend of the Nile and bringing British forces to Berber.

In the spring of 1898, a major defeat was inflicted on the Khalifa’s army at the Battle of Atbara. The advance continued relentlessly, culminating in the Battle of Kerari (the Battle of Omdurman) in September 1898. With minimal losses to the Anglo-Egyptian troops, the Khalifa’s army was for all intensive purposes, wiped out and Omdurman captured. The Khalifa and some of his followers managed to escape, eluding the British for almost a year, until the Battle of Umm Diwaykirat, fought near Kosti, which resulted in the Khalifa’s death. After Kerari, however, the Mahdist state had collapsed. Kitchener restored Khartoum as the capital and, from 1899 until 1956 Sudan was jointly governed by Great Britain and Egypt, at least in theory. In practice, it was Great Britain who ruled Sudan, relegating Egyptians to second positions in the government, despite the Condominium Agreement fixing a shared rule. This site is managed by the U.S. Department of State. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.

Khartoum, capital city of Sudan All... Khartoum, capital city of Sudan Khartoum is one of Central Africa's most modern cities. Built where the Blue and White Niles join, the city boasts high-rise buildings, paved roads and all the amenities you may need or want. While some travelers consider it a mere stopover, those who spend more than an afternoon there will uncover its culture and find much to appreciate. The people are hospitable, crime is low and the riverside setting is spectacular. The prettiest street in the capital is likely Nile Street, bordered by the Blue Nile on one side and lovely colonial buildings on the other. Most house ministries, hotels and schools, but the Presidential Palace also stands on the stretch. Passing in front of the building is forbidden, and the guards will instruct you to proceed across the road, but it is still worth trying to catch a glimpse of the palace. You can, however, visit the Sudan Presidential Palace Museum on the grounds. Inside is an impressive collection of artifacts related to the country's history and culture, including extravagant presidential cars and paintings by Sir Gordon Pasha. Nile Street is also the more modern face of Khartoum.

The tree-lined road is home to many architecturally interesting sights, including the Chinese-built Friendship Hall and the Al-Fateh Tower, an egg-shaped eye-catcher owned by Libya. The Blue and White branches of the Nile converge about four kilometers from Nile Street at Al Mogran. The sight is best taken in from the metal bridge that links Khartoum with its neighbor, Omdurman. If you look closely, you can actually see the two different shades of water come together as they mix downriver. The Al Mogran Family Park, located near the confluence, is a great place for families to spend an afternoon. The park boasts ferris wheels and other rides, open green spaces and plenty of street vendors offering up delicious local delicacies. If you want to throw yourself right into the middle of Khartoum's culture and action, head to the Souq Arabi, or the Arabian Market. Located in the town's commercial heart, the market can provide everything you may need and more. The Sudan National Museum is undoubtedly impressive. The recently revamped collection includes three temples imported from Aswan, Egypt, and you will have most of the museum to yourself if you arrive in the early morning.

The small but fascinating Sudan Ethnographic Museum is also worth a visit. The detailed exhibits explore the many cultures and traditions of the country's diverse ethnic groups through models of traditional homes, intricate handicrafts and other artifacts. In the evenings, enjoy a tea from one of the many cafes on Nile Avenue, take in a film at the French Cultural Center or British Council, groove to a local band or wander around Tuti Island to watch the sun set from the suspension bridge. Khartoum Geographical Location Khartoum is located at the convergence of the White and Blue Nile in the central south east of Sudan. It is Sudan’s largest city with an approximate population of 5,275,000 in the metropolitan area. Khartoum Language Arabic and English are the official languages of Sudan. Arabic is the most common native language and English is used predominately to conduct business. The Arabic constitution states that all indigenous languages of Sudan are national languages. Khartoum: the most selfish city? | Cities | The Guardian Cities Khartoum: the most selfish city?

Sudan’s almost exclusively Arab capital has buried its head in the sand for too long, as the multiethnic country around it burns The model of the elitist city ... central Khartoum and the As Sayed Ali mosque. Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Cities is supported by Nesrine Malik for Tank magazine Friday 19 September 2014 06.13 EDT Last modified on Friday 19 September 2014 06.16 EDT Share on Messenger Close Khartoum is a low-built, sprawling city. The capital of Sudan, until recently the largest country in Africa , sits on either side of the River Nile under an almost perpetual haze of dust. As a child growing up in Khartoum, the city always struck me as sleepy and dark – power cuts were frequent, and the oppressive heat infused everything with a sticky torpor. Unlike Cairo to the north or Nairobi to the south, Khartoum did not have that frenetic energy or drama. The country’s international reputation for hard-line Islamism and ethnic warfare jarred with the city’s subdued mood. Even its military coups were lethargic and bloodless.

In 1989, when the current government came to power, we sat around TV sets watching a young Omar al-Bashir read a statement declaring that he and his military cohort had overthrown the democratically elected government in a bid to save the country from the regime’s ineptitude. Apparently there were tanks, but the streets were empty. We all went to bed early with the vague knowledge that something dramatic had happened, but could see no sign of it. Khartoum has no real discernible “midtown” or central business district any more. People work from offices set up in rented ex-family homes, at desks in converted bedrooms, their bathrooms en suite and inappropriately ornate, clearly picked out by some banished housewife who never thought the family would fall on hard times and have to lease out their home. There are few public spaces for people to mingle, but the poor and the rich do mix in open-air street markets to buy their groceries. Khartoum has an almost benign spirit, but hides a sinister secret.

It is a city-state, unrepresentative of the country’s citizens, in which most business, political and social interests are concentrated in the hands of a small ethnic elite that has ensconced itself behind the garrison walls of the city and goes about securing interests, lining its pockets and accruing political capital. In addition to this concentration of interests, Khartoum has simply never really diffused power and resources to the peripheries. Partly because both were scant, so the capital took precedence, but mostly because the elites in power were replicated from greater Khartoum elites and their extended networks, which did not stretch into the vast expanse of the rest of the country. The Sudanese inheritors of colonial power were a posh bunch – tertiary-educated or army-trained, dressed in suits and sunglasses, hoisting the Sudanese flag above the presidential palace on the bank of the Nile on the day of independence. Even Sudan’s traditional elite, drawn from its religious parties, were Oxbridge-educated and wealthy. The hope was that the combination of these privileged sons would, from elite Khartoum, launch a nation-building exercise.

But since independence in 1956, Sudan has been locked into a pattern of military coups and weak civil government, none of which has ever managed to create enough political consensus to establish durable democracy. There is always a sense that governments are on the clock, on borrowed time, until a popular rising or a military coup unseats them. This is reflected in the attitude of incumbent politicians, whose eyes are not on their legacy or the peaceful transfer of power, but on how they can establish themselves as quickly as possible and reap the maximum reward from their tenure. Khartoum was a leech on Sudan’s flesh almost from birth. Throughout the 1990s and noughties, the city’s lights became brighter and denser, as Khartoum developed from a small centre of old money and traditional elite to a larger, more diffuse conurbation of influx from the provinces of Sudan. Before the secession of the south of the country after a long and bloody civil war, Khartoum seemed like a happily diverse city, but a closer look betrayed hierarchies and divisions.

Southerners occupied menial jobs; those from Darfur and the country’s western provinces were slightly higher up; and the country’s main riverine tribes dominated government and academia. Khartoum, over the years, in its sleepy fug, presided over the longest civil war in African history between the north and south of the country, and the death and displacement of millions in Darfur and the Nuba mountains. Pinterest Garrison mentality ... Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir (centre) and his aides at the opening ceremony of a bridge north of Khartoum. Photograph: Ashraf Shazly/AFP/Getty Culturally, Khartoum is monolithically Arab and Muslim, with a watered-down version of a Sudanese urban identity. Instead of Khartoum becoming a melting pot for all the different ethnicities and cultures of the country, the Star Wars-bar version of an African city where all came to drink and mingle, then make their fortunes, it took off their edges and conformed them into blandness.

Sudan’s 114 indigenous languages – Nubians in the north, Beja in the east, Fur in the west, and Nuba and Dinka in the south, and hundreds of variations in between – never imprinted themselves on the culture of the capital city, which rather merged all these tribes and languages into a sterile, centralised Sudanese identity that subsumed all and represented none. The relationship between the global city and its hinterland is one that usually glorifies the former as a dynamo of change, dragging the rest of the country along with it economically, socially and culturally. But in poor and ethnically diverse countries such as Sudan, these influences need to go the other way, to seep through to the margins of the state in order to create a strong national identity and develop the country all at once. In such weak and ethnically fractured states, cities can be parasites, feeding on their states, needing them to stay alive to thrive. The irony is that, as with all parasites, they inevitably end up killing themselves by exhausting their hosts. It is partly a legacy of colonialism.

Cities such as Khartoum were administrative hubs that the British developed in order to serve their practical needs but not necessarily those of the country. Challenging terrains, inaccessible provinces and lack of infrastructure, and more importantly, lack of immediate access to natural wealth, dissuaded colonisers from expanding beyond Port Sudan, Medani and Khartoum. A gargantuan country of nearly a million square miles, with unnatural borders lumping together tribes, ethnicities and languages with a weak and unconnected centre of power, Sudan never really stood a chance of transcending the fissures of its ethnic and tribal diversity. In a global city such as London or Paris, class, income levels, education, culture and occupation distinguish the centre and the peripheries. These are strong but not national fabric-rending differences. Indeed, in contrast to a city like Khartoum, the megalopolis western city is more diverse than its regions. Board a train outbound from London and the faces get whiter, and even when they don’t, racial diversity is more ghettoised. Pinterest A woman votes on the outskirts of Khartoum in 2011 in the independence referendum that led to the creation of South Sudan.

Photograph: Nasser Nasser/AP Cities like Khartoum also impose their own modern bourgeois morality on their hinterlands, a morality that is more oppressive than the country’s pre-existing “primitive” values. In this instance this urban morality, mixed with some notional Islam , has led to an environment in Khartoum in many cases far more straightjacketed than rural, and ostensibly more conservative areas. My grandmother, a tobacco-chewing, illiterate woman who married at 14, was far more comfortable and assertive around her male counterparts than her daughters and daughters-in-law who had, through their education and socialisation in Khartoum, assimilated quasi-Victorian attitudes towards morality and a woman’s correct place. They wore miniskirts and modelled themselves on the Supremes, but were deeply compliant in spirit and with gender roles that subscribed to the notion that women should be demure and comely. Venture only a few hours outside Khartoum in any direction, and although you will find fewer PhDs, you will see women walking home from working the fields, modestly dressed but not in Islamic clothing, carrying their implements with the effortless ease of the physically strong.

This is not to romanticise the notion of the rural third-world periphery as a bucolic scene of simple, unwittingly liberal values and farmland harmony. Traditional misogyny and inveterate, complicated racisms certainly exist, but it is not hard to see that, if oiled with the right economic and political support, the machinery of coexistence and diversity can run more smoothly than it has thus far in the country. The image of the country bumpkin arriving wide-eyed, fresh off a train from the sticks in their Sunday best to build a new life in the big smoke, is an abiding one in the historical perception of the western city as a place of opportunity. And while Khartoum is certainly the hub of tertiary education and white-collar employment, it devours those who arrive, and sends nothing back to their place of origin. Instead of plucky kids from small-town America making it in the big city and returning to their hometown every now and then, Khartoum migrants eventually uproot their entire family to move with them. Only by understanding this can one truly come to grips with traumatic events such as the ongoing Darfur crisis, which is primarily an issue of a region’s chronic marginalisation and continued under-governance.

In Darfur, competition for scant resources and grazing rights exploded in an environment missing government mediation and then worsened through the actions of a regime ensconced in what effectively became “Camp Khartoum”, the main barracks of the military and command centre. The government financed and supplied whichever group could quell the rebellion most efficiently, effectively outsourcing the war and abdicating its political responsibilities. Far from taking extra care with the restive hinterland, Khartoum barricaded itself against Sudan, sending emissaries who were basically firefighters into the worst humanitarian crisis the country had ever seen. In a sense, all wars waged in Sudan have only ever been waged between Khartoum as a garrison town and everywhere else.

Or as Sudan expert Alex de Waal has described it: “Commonly characterised as a war between North and South, but better described as a connected set of wars between a dominant central elite claiming Islamic and Arab identity, and the peoples most marginalised by that elite, including Southerners, the Nuba people of southern Kordofan, and a number of groups in eastern Sudan, all of them non-Arab, many of them non-Muslim.” Pinterest A man on a donkey cart passes burned buses following rioting in Khartoum in September 2013 sparked by cuts to fuel and food subsidies by president Omar al-Bashir. Photograph: Abd Raouf/AP This garrison mentality further exacerbates marginalisation as a result of the genuine cluelessness and isolation of its residents from the rest of the country. The images that came through from Darfur during the peak of the crisis and those currently filtering out of the Nuba mountains, where another rebellion is being brutally quashed, are treated with suspicion, denial and apathy by the majority of those in Khartoum.

Not because of any inveterate racism or endorsement of the government’s military campaigns, but simply because the faces of the victims are unknown and dehumanised, so little have Khartoumians come in contact with them. The plight of a Palestinian child in Gaza will move more people in Khartoum than that of a child in Darfur, because the Palestinians’ cause is so well formed and articulated in the average Khartoumian’s mind. The political elite is thus further enabled by the replication of its worldview through media and popular culture, leaving all routes to change blocked from within. As Khartoumians, the people best positioned to put pressure on the government, are themselves oppressed into subscribing to the political elite’s world view, those outside the city have no intermediaries or agents in the halls of power. So they take up arms.

An example of this national image distortion became apparent throughout the 1990s and early noughties, when, realising that the alienation of the west and south of the country was leading to the possible breakup of a country, Khartoum’s media went into overdrive, incorporating, or rather crowbarring, references to western tribes and South Sudanese cultural traditions into public messaging. All of a sudden the long-standing, monoculturally Arab religious identity of Sudan was replaced with a bemusing celebration of ethnic diversity, which it seemed boiled down to the traditional dance routines of different tribes in the region. One can always tell how politically unstable the peripheries are by the number of hastily put-together tribal dances from the hinterland that are broadcast in the national media. The more the regions were up in flames, the more the dance drums beat on television. But it is always too little, too shallow, too late. Today, with the south gone, seceded in 2011 in a referendum in which the marginalised Christian and animist region said goodbye to the selfish capital for good, Khartoum is even less diverse, as the city’s large southern minority decided to move almost en masse to South Sudan .

Khartoum is even quieter, poorer, the loss of the South’s resources hurting economically and the loss of the southern territory smarting on a visceral, existential level. Sudan is referred to by the awful term “rump state”. War still rages in the Nuba Mountains and tensions simmer in the east and west of the country. Rebel movements have twice approached and once entered Khartoum, an unthinkable prospect for its dwellers. There is a sense that the hordes are closing in, and that decades of grievances and marginalisation will finally close in and cannibalise a centre of power that has got away with divide, marginalise and rule for too long. Almost 60 years after independence, the model of the elitist city has proven to be a catastrophic failure. This is an edited version of an article that first appeared in Tank Magazine . Khartoum - definition of Khartoum by The Free Dictionary Khartoum - definition of Khartoum by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Thesaurus , Encyclopedia , Wikipedia .

Khar·toum also Khar·tum (kär-to͞om′) The capital of Sudan, in the east-central part of the country at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile. Founded c. 1821 as an Egyptian army camp, it was destroyed by Mahdists in 1885. Lord Kitchener retook the city in 1898 and oversaw its rebuilding. Khartoum Khartum n (Placename) the capital of Sudan, at the junction of the Blue and the White Nile: with adjoining Khartoum North and Omdurman, the largest conurbation in the country; destroyed by the Mahdists in 1885 when General Gordon was killed; seat of the Anglo-Egyptian government of Sudan until 1954, then capital of the new republic. Pop: 4 495 000 (2005 est) Khar•toum (kɑrˈtum) n. the capital of the Sudan, at the junction of the White and Blue Nile rivers. 924,505.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Noun 1. Republic of the Sudan , Soudan , Sudan - a republic in northeastern Africa on the Red Sea; achieved independence from Egypt and the United Kingdom in 1956 Translations Khartoum [kɑːˈtuːm] N → Jartum m Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: Republic of the Sudan References in classic literature ? I then passed through Persia, looked in at Mecca, and paid a short but interesting visit to the Khalifa at Khartoum the results of which I have communicated to the Foreign Office.

Judicial Talks Held between Sudan and South Sudan State Khartoum, 4 April (SUNA)-The Khartoum state government on Monday held a lengthy and comprehensive meeting headed by the governor Abdul Rahaman Al Khidir with the minister for infrastructure and transportation, focusing on how to reorganize the transportation in Khartoum state and to re-launch the new network of the transport means in Khartoum, that will include mega buses, river transportation and local trains. Khartoum | Define Khartoum at Dictionary.com Khartoum noun 1. a city in and the capital of the Sudan, at the junction of the White and Blue Nile rivers: besieged 1885; retaken by the British 1898. Sudan noun 1. a region in N Africa, S of the Sahara and Libyan deserts, extending from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. 2. Republic of the. Formerly Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . a republic in NE Africa, S of Egypt and bordering on the Red Sea: a former condominium of Egypt and Great Britain. 967,500 sq. mi. (2,505,825 sq.

km). Capital: Khartoum. Examples from the Web for Khartoum Expand Contemporary Examples The Classic Case of a Buried Lede Justin Green October 24, 2012 But the Arabs said no, first quietly, then publicly at the Khartoum Summit. The River War Winston S. Churchill That is the impolicy of announcing our intention to evacuate Khartoum. British Dictionary definitions for Khartoum Expand noun 1. the capital of the Sudan, at the junction of the Blue and the White Nile: with adjoining Khartoum North and Omdurman, the largest conurbation in the country; destroyed by the Mahdists in 1885 when General Gordon was killed; seat of the Anglo-Egyptian government of the Sudan until 1954, then capital of the new republic. Pop: 4 495 000 (2005 est) Sudan noun 1.

a republic in NE Africa, on the Red Sea: conquered by Mehemet Ali of Egypt (1820–22) and made an Anglo-Egyptian condominium in 1899 after joint forces defeated the Mahdist revolt; became a republic in 1956; a lengthy civil war between separatists in the mainly Christian south and the government resulted in independence for South Sudan following a referendum in 2011. It consists mainly of a plateau, with the Nubian Desert in the north. Official language: Arabic. Official religion: Muslim; there are Christian and animist minorities. Currency: Sudanese pound or Sudani (replacing the Sudanese dinar in 2007). Capital: Khartoum. Pop: 34 847 910 (2013 est). Area: 1 861 484 sq km (718 723 sq miles) Former name (1899–1956) Anglo-Egyptian Sudan French name Soudan 2.

the Sudan, a region stretching across Africa south of the Sahara and north of the tropical zone: inhabited chiefly by Negroid tribes rather than Arabs Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for Khartoum Expand Sudan 1842, from Arabic Bilad-al-sudan, literally "country of the blacks," from sud, plural of aswad (fem. sauda) "black." Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper Expand Khartoum [(kahr-toohm)] Capital of Sudan , a port at the juncture of the two upper portions of the Nile River — the Blue Nile and White Nile.

Sudan [(sooh-dan)] Republic in northeastern Africa , bordered on the north by Egypt ; on the east by the Red Sea and Ethiopia ; on the south by Kenya , Uganda , and Democratic Republic of Congo ; and on the west by the Central African Republic, Chad , and Libya . Its capital is Khartoum , and its largest city is Omdurman. Note: Sudan was under the joint rule of Britain and Egypt (though Britain exercised actual control) from 1899 to 1956. Note: Recently, it has been plagued by famine and civil war. The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Sudan Facts on Largest Cities, Populations, Symbols - Worldatlas.com Ethnicity: black 52%, Arab 39%, Beja 6%, foreigners 2%, other 1% GDP total: $86.67 billion (2012 est.) GDP per capita: $2,600 (2012 est.) Language: Arabic (official), English (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages note: program of Arabization in process Largest Cities: (by population) Khartoum, Omdurman, Port Sudan, Kassala Name: Sudan translates to "Land of the Blacks" from the Arabic Bilad as-Sudan. National Day: January 1 Khartoum - Countries of the world Countries of the world Khartoum Khartoum is the capital and second largest city of the Republic of Sudan and of Khartoum State. Sudan Khartoum (Arabic: الخرطوم‎ al Ḫarṭūm) is the capital and second largest city of the Republic of Sudan and of Khartoum State.

It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia . The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran", meaning the Confluence. The main Nile continues to flow north towards Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. Divided by the Niles, Khartoum is a tripartite metropolis with an estimated overall population of over five million people consisting of Khartoum proper[clarification needed], and linked by bridges to Khartoum North called (al-Khartūm Bahrī) and Omdurman (Umm Durmān) to the west. History Etymology The origin of the word is uncertain. One tradition is that khartoum derives from Arabic kartūm الخرطوم meaning 'end of an elephant’s trunk', probably referring to the narrow strip of land extending between the Blue and White Niles.[1] Captain J. A.

Grant, who reached Khartoum in 1863 with Captain Speke’s expedition, thought that the derivation was most probably from the Arabic qurtum, safflower (Carthamus tinctorius), which was cultivated extensively in Egypt for its oil, used in burning.[citation needed] Founding (1821–1899) Khartoum at the Bend of the Nile Khartoum was established 15 miles (24 km) north of the ancient city of Soba in 1821 by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Egypt 's ruler, Muhammad Ali Pasha, who had just incorporated Sudan into his realm. Originally, Khartoum served as outpost for the Egyptian Army, but the settlement grew quickly as a regional center of trade. It also became a focal point for the trading in slaves. It became the administrative center for Sudan , and later the official capital. Troops loyal to the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad began a siege of Khartoum on 13 March 1884 against the defenders led by British General Charles George Gordon. The siege ended in a massacre of the Anglo-Egyptian garrison.

The heavily damaged city fell to the Mahdists on 26 January 1885, and all its inhabitants were put to death.[2] Omdurman was the scene of the bloody battle on 2 September 1898, during which British forces under Herbert Kitchener defeated the Mahdist forces defending the city. In 1899, Khartoum became the capital of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . Several explanations have been offered for the design of the new, Anglo-Egyptian Khartoum. One is that Kitchener laid out the city's streets in a Union flag pattern as a symbol of British dominance. Another is that the grid system and diagonal streets of the city were designed to converge in a way that would allow machine-guns to sweep the town. However, there is no contemporary evidence to support either of these suggestions.[3] Modern history (20th–21st centuries) Corinthia Hotel Khartoum In 1973, the city was the site of an anomalous hostage crisis in which members of Black September held ten hostages at the Saudi Arabian embassy, five of whom were diplomats.

The US ambassador, the US deputy ambassador, and the Belgian chargé d'affaires were murdered. The remaining hostages were released (see 1973 Khartoum diplomatic assassinations). A 1973 United States Department of State document, declassified in 2006, concluded "The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat."[4] The first oil pipeline between Khartoum and Port Sudan was completed in 1977. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Khartoum was the destination for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in neighbouring nations such as Chad , Eritrea , Ethiopia and Uganda . Many Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees assimilated into society, while some of the other refugees settled in large slums at the outskirts of the city. From the mid-1980s onward, large numbers of South Sudanese and Darfuri internally displaced from the violence of the Second Sudanese Civil War and Darfur conflict have settled around Khartoum.

In 1991, Osama bin Laden purchased a house in the affluent al- Riyadh neighborhood of the city and another in Soba. He lived there until 1996 when he was banished from the country. Following the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, the United States accused bin Laden's al-Qaeda group of responsibility and launched cruise missile attacks (20 August) on the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum North. The destruction of the factory produced diplomatic tension between the U.S. and Sudan . The ruins of the factory are a tourist attraction. After the sudden death of SPLA head and vice-president of Sudan John Garang at the end of July 2005, there were violent riots in the capital for three days which died down after Southern Sudanese politicians and tribal leaders sent strong messages to the rioters.

The situation could have been chaotic with mass killings and reprisals; even so, the death toll was at least 24, as youths from southern Sudan attacked northern Sudanese and clashed with security forces.[5] The Organisation of African Unity summit of 18–22 July 1978 was held in Khartoum, during which Sudan was awarded the OAU presidency. The African Union summit of 16–24 January 2006 was held in Khartoum. The Arab League summit of 28–29 March 2006 was held in Khartoum, during which the Arab League awarded Sudan the Arab League presidency. On 10 May 2008 the Darfur rebel group of the Justice and Equality Movement moved into the city where they engaged in heavy fighting with Sudanese government forces. Their soldiers included minors and their goal was the toppling of Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government, though the Sudanese government succeeded in beating back the assault.[6][7][8] On 23 October 2012 an explosion at the Yarmouk munitions factory kills two people and injures another person.

The Sudanese government claims the explosion is the result of an Israeli airstrike.[9] Panorama of Khartoum Climate Khartoum features a hot desert climate, with only the months of July and August seeing significant precipitation. Khartoum averages a little over 155 millimetres (6.1 in) of precipitation per year. Based on annual mean temperatures, Khartoum is one of the hottest major cities in the world. Temperatures may exceed 53 °C (127 °F) in mid-summer. Its average annual high temperature is 37.1 °C (99 °F), with six months of the year seeing an average monthly high temperature of at least 38 °C (100 °F). Furthermore, none of its monthly average high temperatures falls below 30 °C (86 °F). This is something not seen in other major cities with hot desert climates such as Riyadh , Baghdad and Phoenix. Temperatures cool off considerably during the night, with Khartoum's lowest average low temperatures of the year just above 15 °C (59 °F).

Climate data for Khartoum Economy Panorama of Khartoum suburbs at night After the signing of the historic Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLA), the Government of Sudan has begun a massive development project.[15][16] In 2007, the biggest projects in Khartoum were the Al-Mogran Development Project, two five-star hotels, a new airport, Mac Nimir Bridge (finished in October 2007) and the Tuti Bridge that links Khartoum to Tuti Island. In the 21st century, Khartoum has developed based on Sudan 's oil wealth. The center of the city has tree-lined streets. Khartoum has the highest concentration of economic activity in the country. This has changed as major economic developments take place in other parts of the country, like oil exploration in the South, the Giad Industrial Complex in Al Jazirah state and White Nile Sugar Project in Central Sudan , and the Merowe Dam in the North.[citation needed] Among the city's industries are printing, glass manufacturing, food processing, and textiles.

Petroleum products are now produced in the far north of Khartoum state, providing fuel and jobs for the city. One of Sudan 's largest refineries is located in northern Khartoum.[citation needed] Retailing Khartoum has one of the largest open markets or souqs, the Souq Al Arabi. The market is spread over several blocks in the center of Khartoum proper just south of the Great Mosque (Mesjid al-Kabir) and the minibus station. It is divided into separate sections, including one focused entirely on gold. Al Qasr Street and Al Jamhoriyah Street are considered the most famous high streets in Khartoum State. Afra Mall is located in the southern suburb Arkeweet. The Afra Mall has a supermarket, retail outlets, coffee shops, a bowling alley, movie theaters, and a children's playground. In 2011, Sudan opened the Hotel Section and part of the food court of the new, Cornithia hotel Tower. The Mall/Shopping section is still under construction.

Education Khartoum is the main location for most of Sudan 's top educational bodies.[citation needed] High schools Open University of Sudan, Public Health Institute, a post-graduate institution operated by the Ministry of Health Sudan University of Science and Technology, one of the leading engineering and technology schools in Sudan, founded in 1932 as Khartoum Technical Institute and has been given its present name in 1991. University of Khartoum. Founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902, it was later renamed to share the name of the city in the 1930s. Private universities include:[20] Bayan College for Science & Technology, Canadian Sudanese College, Comboni College for Science and Technology Future University of Sudan, the first specialized university for ICT inter-related studies in Sudan, founded by Dr. Abubaker Mustafa. National College for Medical & Technical Studies, National Ribat University, University of Medical Sciences and Technology, better known as UMST, it was founded in 1996 by Prof. Mamoun Humaida as Academy of Medical Science & Technology. The city is also home to Juba University, relocated from Juba during the civil war.

This is one of the universities in Sudan that maintains English as the language of instruction. Plans exist to relocate the university or part of it back to South Sudan . Transportation Air Khartoum is home to the largest airport in Sudan , Khartoum International Airport. It is the main hub for Sudan Airways, Sudan 's main carrier. The airport was built at the southern edge of the city; but with Khartoum's rapid growth and consequent urban sprawl, the airport is now located in the heart of the city. A new international airport is currently being built about 40km south of the city center. It will replace the current airport in Khartoum as Sudan 's main airport, followed by Port Sudan Airport in Port Sudan . Bridges The following bridges cross the Blue Nile and connect Khartoum to Khartoum North: Mac Nimir Bridge the following bridges cross from Omdurman: to Khartoum North: Shambat Bridge The following bridges cross to Tuti from Khartoum states three cities Khartoum-tuti bridge Khartoum North-tuti bridge proposed Rail Khartoum has rail lines from Egypt , Port Sudan and El Obeid.

Some lines also extended to some parts of south Sudan Culture A statue, claimed to depict Natakamani, at the front of the National Museum of Sudan Museums The largest museum in all of Sudan , is the National Museum of Sudan . Founded in 1971, it contains works from different epochs of Sudanese history. Among the exhibits are two Egyptian temples of Buhen and Semna which were originally built by Queen Hatshepsut and Pharaoh Tuthmosis III respectively but relocated to Khartoum upon the flooding of Lake Nasser. Another museum in Khartoum is the Palace Museum, located adjacent to the historical Presidential Palace on Blue Nile Street. Botanical gardens Khartoum is home to a small botanical garden, in the Mogran district of the city. Clubs Khartoum is home to several clubs such as the Sailing Club, German Club, Greek Hotel , Coptic Club, Syrian Club, International Club etc. There is also a football club situated in Khartoum - Al Khartoum Twin cities

Question: Khartoum is the capital of which country?
Answer: SUDAN