Sudan

Along the Nile in northern Sudan rose the kingdoms of Kerma, Napata and Meroë — the civilisation of Kush, which for a time ruled Egypt itself as its Twenty-fifth Dynasty. Their kings and queens were buried under steep-sided pyramids, and more than two hundred of them still stand.

Christian Nubian kingdoms followed, holding the Nile valley for some seven hundred years, before the gradual spread of Islam and Arabic through trade, migration and the Sufi orders.

The Funj and Darfur sultanates, Ottoman-Egyptian rule, the Mahdist state and Anglo-Egyptian administration all shaped the modern country, which became independent in 1956.

The Island of Meroe holds the royal city, the temples of Naqa and Musawwarat es-Sufra, and the pyramid fields of Begrawiya rising directly from the dunes — the burial ground of the Kushite kings and the candace queens.

Gebel Barkal, the sacred mountain of the Napatan region, was regarded as the home of the god Amun by both Egyptians and Kushites, and the Sanganeb marine park and Dungonab Bay protect an outstanding stretch of Red Sea reef.

At Khartoum the Blue Nile, arriving from the Ethiopian highlands, meets the White Nile from the Great Lakes; the line where the two waters run side by side before mixing is visible from the bank.

North of the confluence the Nubian Desert takes over, while the Red Sea coast at Port Sudan and Sanganeb holds reefs, sea grass and marine life protected from heavy tourism.

Sudanese culture sits at the meeting of Arab and African traditions. The Friday dhikr of the Sufi orders at Omdurman, with drums, chant and movement, is one of its most striking public expressions.

Music, poetry, henna, leatherwork, basketry and the long tradition of Nubian architecture — painted doorways and decorated courtyards — all remain part of everyday life.