Things to see and do Sudan

Entry 20 SDG. We must maginer what Frédéric Cailliaud had to feel about these pyramids, almost 200 years ago! At that time, they were in better condition and still had their summit. Let's say at the outset that the site of Merowe is Exceptional and that it retains a colourful environment and environment different from those that can be found in Egypt. The grey (very) gray stone and the orange (very) orange orange highlight its singular character. However, these pyramids, which were originally more than 200 copies in the region, do not have the dimensions of their great Egyptian sisters. They are different. More pentues, filled with embankment (the burial chamber is underneath and not in), and with a chapel adorned with tower towers, east oriented and is supposed to lead, via a false door, to the last resting place of the deceased, or the deceased. Because the candaces, these mythical queens of Merowe, were also entitled to their personal pyramid. The dead, in Egyptian fashion, were represented in the form of the Bâ bird, which had their head.

By visiting the various chapels, don't miss to observe the little marvels of bas-reliefs inspired by the Book of the Dead. As, for example, the only Sudanese representation of the soul, where the heart of the sovereign is placed on the balance and compared with the pen of Mâat, under the gaze of Anubis and Osiris… If you are passionate (and you have time) know that there is a pyramid whose height of angle has the hieroglyphic name d'Amun, another with, on an exterior wall of its chapel, a model of the angle used by architects to build these buildings, and one with the representation of a grape cluster and a jar, some of which bad languages say it was a boss to draw rich queens!!

Pyramids, there are many styles. First in stairs, in the south, they become smooth to the north. Archaeologists have reconstituted some of them in anastylose, giving a good idea, with their cream colour foam coating, what to look like the site originally. It should be noted that there are historically several necropolises in the region. The oldest (and the oldest), which probably dates from the beginning of the kingdom of Merowe, towards the th century BC, is located more west of the main site, near the Nile and above all the former royal city (see below). You will also notice, on the main site, several more remote pyramids in the southeast. Those that are aligned along the ridge, these pyramids that are seen by far from the road, are the most "recent" and in better condition.

The last thing about summits. The elements are not solely responsible for their disappearance! In 1834, Giuseppe Ferlini, an Italian fighter fighter, had the idea of ététer the pyramids with dynamite, believing that he would find thousand riches there. After he had massacred many, to the point that many seem to be about to collapse, one confirmed his hopes. That of Queen Amanishakheto, now known for her "treasure".

The site is more than 500 m from the road. Temple merchants sell souvenirs but you won't find any groceries. So think about bringing water and food. Sands will certainly invite you to climb on their camels (sorry, we don't know "dromadairiers"). An original experience on an extraordinary site! But that will not be free. Get ready to negotiate if you are interested.

For photos, if you are on the site at the sunrise, think of climbing one of the hills to the east to get a remarkable overview. In the evening, the orange light is simply magic.

It is not the Cairo Museum or the British Museum, but at its modest level (the largest museum in the country), it is an obligation for tourists and all lovers of archaeology. And Sudan is not a poor land in this area. Built at the hinge of the years 1960-1970, the museum is designed to allow the visitor to browse the long Sudanese chronology, from Prehistory to Islamic times.

On the ground floor, at the entrance, a huge map of the country draws attention. It presents the archaeological sites and the ancient kingdoms of the region. In the sense of a watch, you travel between windows, maps and statues, gathered according to time and with comments. For the prehistoric period, the museum exhibits a beautiful amount of jewellery (bracelets, earrings, necklaces) and figurines. The period of Kerma is illustrated by a rich collection of pottery, for which the first sub-Saharan civilization was very famous. Koushite history continues by Napata and, of course, Merowe. Among the most beautiful pieces of the museum are the sarcophagus of the sovereign napatéen Anlamani, but also a statue of the representative. He was one of the close kushites kings of the Black Pharaohs, at a time when the kingdom of Kush was experiencing turbulent times. In the méroïtique period, objects with multiple influences are the most significant. The King Archer statue, the centrepiece of the exhibition "Merowe, an empire on the Nile", in the Louvre in 2010, will have to return to the National Museum of Khartoum, as well as several dozen other hand loaned to the French museum.

On the floor, a rather dark room probably exposes the most beautiful parts of the Middle Ages in Nubia. More than a dozen frescoes, including the cathedral of Faras, a former religious capital sunk under the waters of Lake Nasser, testify to the finesse and beauty of the Nubian pictorial art of that era. The round of saints or the representation of bishops, angels, Christ or the Virgin are particularly striking. The same room also features several objects dating from the Muslim period, to the Sultanate Founj. For photos, think of bringing a foot (the flash is forbidden).

Outside, don't miss the reconstructions (serre) of the temples of Semna, Kumma and Bouhen, little brothers of Abu Simbel, saved, like their prestigious counterpart, from the rise of the waters of Nassero-Nubian lake by UNESCO in the late 1960 s. Egyptian constructions, these temples were to ensure the visibility of Egyptian control over these remote lands in the Middle Empire. The garden of the museum is also adorned with colonnades and bélier statues, symbols of Amun, from the temple dedicated to this god in Kawa.

There is a small cafeteria-cafeteria, very good with large heat.

The Goethe-Institut in Sudan is a training center located in Khartoum. The Goethe-Institut aims to promote knowledge of the German language abroad and to foster international cultural cooperation. Despite its closure, it offers an online multimedia magazine called RUYA. However, please note that these timetables may be subject to change due to the current situation.

It is the largest national park in Sudan. But how sad to see it in so bad a state! Stretching from the Environs border crossing to the Blue Nile province over 10 000 km, Dinder Park is in the image of Sudanese wildlife. It has suffered very badly from the fighting of civil war, intensive poaching and the state of abandonment in which it left authorities poorly aware of environmental problems until recently.

Safari fans will no longer find Dinder large specimens of wild animals, such as rhino, elephants or even giraffes. Contrary to what may be said by locals, they have disappeared from the region for years. Lions would still be visible, however. But you will be entitled to monkeys, warthogs, ostriches and, above all, if you care, the many birds that still inhabit this savannah landscape.

The entrance door to the park is in the village of Dinder, east of Sinja. You must register on-site with the competent police (and pay a tax). An all-terrain car is then required to win the park, even at 3 hours of that. Very difficult to reach, the park is closed throughout the rainy season. A permit issued by the Department of Humanitarian Affairs is required to travel to Dinder. For recently, tourists would not be very welcome in the park.

One of the favourite attractions of the locals. Accessible in minibus, Mastoura Souk

daily hosts, east of Kassala, a camel market from all over Sudan. It also organizes these animals during the year. It is not easy, however, to learn about their dates without being there.

The Oasis of Salima is located approximately kilometres west of the shelter. It is one of the largest oases in Sudan. Desert trekking enthusiasts will certainly enjoy getting lost, especially since this oasis has a long history, linked to the ancient caravanière route of which Salima was an important step.

Déjà already mentioned a Commercial Road through the Desert that connected Egypt to the heart of Africa. A road that required a trip length of "40 days". Still, the track through the sands is borrowed by the nomads and retains its nickname of "El al-Arbain" (track of the forty), although the route has evolved and that the duration of forty days has little relevance!

Historically, the runway began at the oasis of Kharga in southwestern Egypt. Kharga is the largest oasis in southern Egypt, and another route connects it to the Nile. It crossed the Desert desert to Kutum, near the current El Fasher, the historic capital of Darfur. Over time, the word'runway'was used to designate all the desert caravan roads from the far north of Sudan to Khartoum or in Kordofan, in addition to Darfur. Following a trail of known Bedouin wells, these roads had the merit of avoiding the large consuming loops formed by the Nile in northern Sudan, but also limited the risk of caravanes the caravans. From the end of the th century, the English reduced traffic trailers specialized in the slave transit. The marginalization of both Darfur and the hosting roads in the next century, with the development of the railways, has definitively put an end to the permanent use of the runway.

If you're interested in this "40 days" journey, check with specialist tour operators or get started in adventure, provided you are properly equipped and equipped with the necessary permits. It's much better to be already a great breed of such expeditions.

The last thing: for security reasons, forget the Libyan border and Darfur.

Built by the Chinese, it very often hosts exhibitions, conferences, and sometimes international summits. Events can be very "select" so.

The antenna of the French-based French research centre based in Cairo focuses on the study of the contemporary Sudan. It has an interesting documentary base if you want to know more about the country.

So hold! Des pyramids in this napatéen decor… Dating from the period from Napata's decline to Merowe's rise in power, these pyramids were built at an "intermediate" moment that made them forget about Sudanese imagery. There is, however, a crucial difference in relation to the pyramids of Merowe. Four of them still have their summit. Why did these sovereigns choose this place? Perhaps because it lies between the sacred piton and the horizon where the sun is couche.

It's not necessarily the place to go to go, but you'd be wrong to deprive yourself of it. This university is a historic site for intellectual and political reflection in the country. Since independence, the University of Khartoum has been the heir to Gordon Memorial College, founded in 1902 by the English. It is the oldest and most prestigious university in the country. The main campus, on the banks of the Nile, hosts green and shady gardens. You'll even find some monkeys who chapardent what students want to leave them between two courses. The buildings are colonial style, in fact the British style, but built with local sandstone of course. The main building is thus superb with its clock tower (without clock) characteristic and its latérales latérales. A small perfume of Nilotic England…

Located in a beautiful disused Anglican church, the museum recounts, with strong illustrations, portraits and comments, the road travelled by the Sudan from foreign invasions and the struggle for independence to the present. A lot of space is devoted to the objects relating to the supreme function, especially the gifts offered to the various presidents. Special mention for the Nixon gift, which enjoyed us well. The museum also exhibits a small collection of presidential cars, especially Rolls, used on major occasions, such as reception of foreign heads of state or national festivals.

From Kitchener, the famous Republican Palace (where Omar al-Bashir does not live) is just northwest on the Nile River. Photos are forbidden but you can see it on old shots at the museum, Bait al-Khalifa in Omdurman, or on the flip of the 10 SDG English ticket.

Closer to the Mek Pont Bridge, the little St Matthew Cathedral (Catholic this time) deserves to be stopped, especially on Sunday, of course, during offices of the African rite.

Tuti offers the opportunity to spend a afternoon relaxing, between promenade, picnic and, possibly, swimming (make sure to remain discreet, especially women who need to be more "covered" than in Europe). Still largely cultivated, the island hosts many irrigation pumps that draw in a Nile, which is easy to see in the seasons. In the wet season, there is in fact no more often than no beach… In the extreme north of the island, an old fortin (tabiya) rounded up date of the mahdiste period, but now does not defend much more.

To see the fusion of Blue Nile and White Nile waters, go to the tip of Mogran (literally the "confluence"), at the extreme northwest of Khartoum Centre. " Montaza Mogran "is a small park of green attractions (and paying) that makes it possible to have a significant view of this exceptional place in Africa. The photos are allowed but restricted. No need to photograph bridges… From May to August, the difference in flow and color is noticeable. Forget blue and white. But you'll surely notice that Blue makes much more sediment than White. You will also think of the frustration of Scottish explorer James Bruce, a European discoverer, in 1770, of Lake Tana, which he took for the unique source of the Nile. As it descended the river, the discovery of the confluence with another "Nile" the deprived of the pleasure to realize fully a dream of explorers dating from antiquity. We will still have to wait for nearly nine decades for Europe to discover the largest lake in Africa, christened by the British John Hanning Emancipation on behalf of the Queen of England: Victoria.

A last (more expensive) means of approaching the confluence is also the boat. You can rent one (more cost-effective if you are in group) at the foot of the Tuti Bridge, or that of Mek Nimir, the marina and the Blue Nile Sailing Club. You will also see Al-Malik, Lord Kitchener's old boat, rouillant for more than a century.

The jebel itself is a place of visit because it can climb on its southern slope and have a superb panorama of this region of the Nile, close to 100 m high: Karima, Nuri, Merowe, as well as the archaeological site at the foot of the mountain. The temples of Mut and Amun revèlent their Plan. Once at the top of the "python", take a dream of all the conquerors on these shores… Bring yourself water and take a quarter of an hour to climb (no need for equipment) and 30 seconds to get down! The sands accumulated by the elements for centuries on this wall allow an express and original descent. Moving slides or stairs… Make sure you don't leave your sandals, if you have!

Entrance 20 SDG. To the west of the road (there is a sign), the ruins of the royal complex on the banks of the Nile must have been the center of the capital. It is now overgrown with acacia trees, and it is difficult to imagine its importance at the time of its heyday, when it probably housed more than 20,000 inhabitants. Apart from a few archaeological tells, there remain the remains of a temple of Amun (still identified by ram statues at the entrance), the bases of a temple of the Lion (a little outside the city, as it should be), but above all the more substantial remains of royal baths. Could these baths be the "fountains of youth" to which, according to Herodotus, the Meroians owed their supposed longevity?

Excavations on the site have brought to light a bronze head of the Roman emperor Augustus. It originally came from Egypt where, in 23 BC, the Romans were battling a Nubian revolt in the south, where they wanted to establish themselves. The Roman troops confronted those of Meroe and even razed the city of Napata, the former Kushite capital. In revenge, the head of a statue of Augustus was taken from Egypt and brought back to Meroe, where it was placed under the step of a palace door: thus Augustus was symbolically "trampled"!

Although the entrance is not free, it is interesting to visit a site that lives in the shadow of the postcard pyramids. Note that the ghaffir keeps the key of the baths.

Admire an Egyptian-inspired temple and a Roman-Roman amphitheatre with an arid savannah decor is not banal… This all the more so since neither the Egyptians nor the Greeks or the Romans built these buildings. It was the charm of the Méroïtique civilization that had been able to combine a large number of cultural influences.

The two buildings are behind barbed wire. The presence of many animals due to the close of the well may not be foreign.

The booth, whose utility remains discussed, is characterized by Egyptian lintels, interspersed with uraeus, corinthians capitals and Roman arches. Lions are visible on the top of the windows inside. Because the whole place is dedicated to the lion, the lion god Apademak. The temple behind the entrance tower shows a well-known scene of the egyptologists. The sovereign and his triumphant wife, about to decapitate a group of enemies at their mercy. It is King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore, observed by Horus, the eagle, and especially the god-creator Amun, to which their names refer (Aman-, -Amani). Lions devour prisoners at their feet… On the side of the tower, the asks master is represented with an emerging snake from a lotus. The bas-reliefs surrounding the temple are superb. On the west side, a strange Apademak with three heads and four arms surprise at the center of the scene. The inspiration seems frankly Indian… But how? By approaching, it is also noted that both hands of the sides of the underside are represented with the thumb and the related index, in the same way as those… from the Buddha. Inside the wall on the left, we end up breaking the Egyptian canons by representing a three-quarters deity, with a beard sealed! This is undoubtedly a Greek or Persian god…

But where one thinks of being in the middle of nowhere in Africa, what emotion to feel the presence etched in the stone of the culture of distant countries… This may already be the globalization old sauce!

In the east of the grand hall, you can see the temple of the Lion, dedicated to the god Apademak, with the lion head. It is a purely local deity that does not exist in Egypt. Although the whole is inspired by Egyptian culture, you can be able to note the details that highlight the bas-reliefs. First of all, elephant procession, frequently represented animals. The presence of griffins, as can be observed in the ruins of Persepolis in Iran, the heir country of the great Persian Empire of the ancient world. Also, the proportions of characters are different from those of their Egyptian counterparts, especially nubiennes queens. They are distinguished by their stéatopygie, that is, their generous butt, a symbol of fertility and beauty, particularly in Africa. Outside on the west wall, you will see here too, as in the grand enclosure, that the bas-reliefs have not been finished. Why? Mystery…

The temple was rebuilt in the 1960 s from the stone blocks surrounding the temple. The reconstituted ceiling is probably identical to the one that was there two thousand years ago.

For the entire site, do not forget the 20 regulatory guinées to give to the ghaffir, the guardian of the site, which will open the door of the temple.

The cultural and religious home of Omdurman and, in a way, the country. The Mahdi, founder of the modern city of Omdurman, wanted to marginalize Khartoum, which he saw as a town built by invaders. It is therefore in the heart capital of the Sudanese that the winner of the English is based. Only a few months after were them from the confluence, in 1885, the Mahdi died of disease and was buried in great pomp in the city by his supporters. A tomb, with a pine shaped dome (typical of the Sheikh tombs in the region), later covered with silver dye, was set up in Omdurman. In the return of the English, they profanèrent the grave, too happy to be able to avenge the late Charles Gordon, a colonial hero killed during the seizure of Khartoum by the mahdistes. They threw the remains of the religious leader into the Nile and conservènt his skull. Which was, then, buried in Wadi Halfa. The tomb was rebuilt shortly before independence, with the British unwilling to alienate the mahdistes, which were not favourable to Egyptian guardianship on the Sudan. This tomb is today a place of pilgrimage for many Sudanese and a stronghold of the brotherhood of Des. The entrance is free, in the garden as in the building. Although the building (where one must déchausser) can be closed during your passage. You will notice the flags of the brotherhood of Des, recognizable by white trident on a black, red and green background (the colours of the national flag).

Just next door, there is the house where the direct successor of the Mahdi, but also Kitchener, lived for several months before it was set up in the current presidential palace. The house of Khalifa (Bait al-Khalifa; free entrance) houses a museum dedicated to this entire period of national history and highlights the characters of Ali Dinar or Osman Digna. Near the entrance, don't miss one of the first cars that drove in the Sudan or, later, the bathroom's bathroom, with manual feeding.

The Mahdi tomb (visible on Friday only, except for special events) and the Maison du Khalifa (closed on Friday, Monday and sometimes Saturday) cannot be visited at the same time.

Built in the very flank of the jebel, this temple dedicated to the wife of Amun retains bas-reliefs to disappeared colours and walls which have obviously suffered for centuries of ashes and vandals. From the temple, "out of the mountain", remain two proud columns surmounted by capitals effigy of a Hathor at Mona Lisa smile. The reference to these feminine merit figures can make it felt that this temple, located just at the foot of the very phalliforme rocky cobra, had the power to stimulate the fertility of its visitors.

Don't forget that there is a small museum south of the site

This is the main reserve (khazan) of El-Obeid water. It is located in the south of the city, just after the Hotel Zénobia. There are many urban residents and nomads in the surrounding area who go to bowls and bidons, which they carry on the backs of donkey, bicycle or car. More generally, the place is frequented by the whole city for its beauty and freshness. Fed by a source from the Nuba Mountains, the khazan is lined with thick tall trees providing a welcome shade. This "oasis" of the savanna also attracts many birds… and probably also mosquitoes. During the rainy season, the khazan is at the highest and the whole region is green. A good time to visit El-Obeid, then more spared by relentless heat.

Open every day. Offices on Sundays. Free entrance. The cathedral, which faces a proud Islamic soaring minarets centre built by the Saudis in the 1990 s, is not thirty years older than its neighbour. Located in a green setting, it has a décor and an atmosphere that we do not necessarily expect in this region. One could easily believe in a church on the shores of the Mediterranean. Rich in paintings and stained glass, the whole is very colourful and warm. The apse is a Virgin to the Child, beloved by (holy) Josephine Bakhita and Monsignor Daniel Comboni, former bishop of El-Obeid. The ceiling and side walls are also richly decorated. Note the "Ave Maria" translated into twelve languages above each arc (including Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Guèze…). It is worth the experience to go to the cathedral during Sunday mass.