Introduction to Sudanese History
It's often said that people's identity is defined by the culture and history of the place where they live.
The human presence on this swath of the Nile Valley began nearly a million years ago. Sudan's position on the southern border of Egypt and its extension to the depths of Africa (south) and to the Red Sea (east) and in the Sahara region (west), has made this country a melting pot for many peoples and civilizations.
The Middle Nile region has witnessed, during its long history, the rise of two giant civilizations: the first is the civilization of the Kingdom of Karma, which took its name from its primary discovery site, which is located on the Yemeni bank of the Nile, about 30 km from the third waterfall. This Kingdom has occupied the Sudanese political theater for about a thousand years (2400-1500 BC). This kingdom posed a real threat to Egypt to the extent that forced the kings of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and then modern to build many military castles in the area of the second waterfall to protect their southern borders and secure trade routes to obtain products of Central Africa.
The ninth century BC witnessed the establishment of the second central kingdom in Sudan, which was known to many historians as the Kingdom of Kush, which is divided into two periods, namely the Napata period and the period of Meroe due to the transformation of the capital from the first region of the southern region. The plant is located at Jabal al-Barkal or the holy mountain about 40 km below the fourth waterfall. The kings of Napata are the true heirs of the Egyptian Empire. They occupied Egypt for nearly a century and ruled a vast country stretching from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the depths of Africa in the south, and their influence extended in a short period to the borders of Palestine.
For unconfirmed reasons, and on an unaccounted date, the capital was transformed from Napata to Meroe, which lies between the fifth and sixth waterfalls. In any case, the Kushite royal activity has been concentrated, and since the fourth century BC, in what is known as “(Marwa Island)”, these are fertile lands located in the area that the Nile, the Blue Nile and the Atbara River contain. Here, the Meroites built one of Africa's finest civilizations, which lasted until the middle of the fourth century AD. All of Africa, and they entered a new writing known as the Meroitic language, which scholars have not been able to decipher. The end of this great kingdom came by the Ethiopian state of Axum in the middle of the fourth century AD.
With the fall of the Meroitic state, a new civilization spread in the Middle Nile Valley, which historians call the post-Meroitic period. The advantage of this civilization was that its kings and nobles were buried under high piles of soil instead of the well-known Meroitic pyramid. The people of Sudan converted to Christianity in the sixth century, where there were three Christian states in the country: Nubatia in the north, with its capital Persia at the Egyptian border, the ocher in the center, the capital of the old Dongola and the state of Alwa in the south and its capital Soba, which lies east of Khartoum. Later on, the two northern states united in one country, the kingdom of Mugra, which kept the Old City as its capital.
The end of the two Christian kingdoms came in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, respectively, as they were built on the ruins of the Islamic Blue Sultanate, which ruled the country from Sennar, which is located on the Blue Nile. The end of the Islamic state of Sennar came in 1821 at the hands of the Turkish armies and then the country became part of the Egyptian kingdom (the Ottoman Empire). And Turkish rule went on with the establishment of the Mahdist Revolution and the liberation of Khartoum in 1885 CE. In the wake of the defeat of the Mahdia armies in the battle of Omdurman in the year 1898 AD, the country entered the period of the English administration until the independence of Sudan in the January 1, 1956 AD.
Important Historical Locations
The pyramids of Meroe.
Meroe's temples
Barkal Mountain Area - Nori Pyramids
Tempus archaeological site
and so many more
Our Project - Sudan Archive
Sudan archive emerged as a way to preserve Sudanese ancient history through digitizing and providing a reliable digital storage for preservation.
We will attempt to store and restore ancient Nubia Painting and writing as a way to provide it for researchers and people who interested in learning and discovering the Sudanese History.
