Khartoum

Khartoum الخرطوم al-Kharṭūm
The old Mosque of Khartoum The old Mosque of Khartoum
Seal
Nickname: The Triangular City
Khartoum Khartoum's location in Sudan
Coordinates: 15°34′N 33°36′E
Government
- Governor	Abdul Halim al Mutafi
Population (2005)
- Urban	2,207,794
- Metro	8,000,000 Agglomeration

For other uses, see Khartoum (disambiguation).

Khartoum (الخرطوم al-Kharṭūm) is the capital of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence point 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". 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 a million people consisting of Khartoum proper, and linked by bridges Khartoum North called (al-Khartūm Bahrī) and Omdurman (Umm Durmān) to the west.

Geography

The word Khartoum means elephant’s trunk in the local dialect, and is probably derived from the narrow strip of land between the blue and White Niles, which is like the trunk of an elephant.

Topography: Physical qualities of a particular place. Example: Mexico City a. Mountain flanked basin b. on dry lake bed c. vulnerability to earthquakes d. trapped air pollution (also true in L.A. and Athens) Elevation

Khartoum’s average maximum temperature is over 100°F (38°C) and prevails from February to November. An average maximum of 94°F (34°C) characterizes the remaining two months. Sandstorms (huboobs) are common from May until August. Mean annual precipitation is 6.2 inches (157.5mm).

Rivers and canals Size – land area, size comparison Environmental issues Districts

History

Early history

Khartoum at the Bend of the Nile

Ibrahim Pasha, the adopted son of Muhammad Ali, the ruler of Egypt, founded Khartoum in 1821 as an outpost for the Egyptian army, but the settlement grew as a regional center of trade, including the slave trade. Troops loyal to the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad began a siege of Khartoum on March 13, 1884 against the defenders led by British General Charles George Gordon. The siege resulted in the massacre of the Anglo-Egyptian garrison.

The heavily damaged city fell to the Mahdists on January 26, 1885. Omdurman was the scene of the bloody battle on September 2, 1898, during which British forces under Horatio Kitchener defeated the Mahdist forces defending the city.

In 1899, Khartoum became the capital of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and, with the independence of Sudan in 1956, the capital of the new country.

Recent history

In 1973, the city was the site of a hostage crisis in which members of Black September held ten hostages at the Saudi 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."

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 neighboring nations such as Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Uganda. The refugees settled in large slums at the outskirts of the city. From the mid-1980s onward, large numbers of internally displaced from the violence of the Second Sudanese Civil War and Darfur conflict have settled around Khartoum.

Following the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, the United States accused Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group of responsibility and launched cruise missile attacks (August 20) on the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum North. The destruction of the factory produced diplomatic tension between the U.S. and Sudan.

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 some days. The death toll was at least 24 as youth from South Sudan attacked North Sudanese and clashed with security forces.

The Arab League summit of March 28-29, 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 goal was the toppling of Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government, though the Sudanese government succeeded in beating back the assault.

Economy

View of the traffic in the city of Khartoum.

Sudan's economy was booming in 2008 on the back of increases in oil production, high oil prices, and large inflows of foreign direct investment. GDP growth registered more than 10 percent per year in 2006 and 2007. Agricultural production remains important, because it employs 80 percent of the work force and contributes a third of GDP. The Darfur conflict, the aftermath of two decades of civil war in the south, the lack of basic infrastructure in large areas, and a reliance by much of the population on subsistence agriculture ensure much of the population will remain at or below the poverty line for years despite rapid rises in average per capita income.

Per capita GDP was estimated at $1900 in 2007.

Although poor, with few paved streets, Khartoum is a trade and communications centre, with rail lines from Egypt, Port Sudan, and El Obeid, river traffic on the Blue and White Nile rivers, and Khartoum International Airport, is located in the heart of the city. A new international airport was under construction in 2008 in the city of Omdurman.

It has four bridge connections across the Blue Nile to Khartoum North, and four (with two more proposed in 2008) across the White Nile to Omdurman. The three cities form The Sudan’s largest conurbation.

Financial and business services sector

Tourism

Industries include printing, glass manufacturing, food processing, gums and textiles.

Petroleum products are produced in the north of Khartoum state, providing fuel and jobs for the city. One of Sudan's largest refineries is located in northern Khartoum. An oil pipeline between Khartoum and Port Sudan was completed in 1977.

Demographics

Population, population rank Race/ethnicity - historical background of ethnic groups Language Religion Colleges and universities

Year	Population
	City	Agglomeration
1907	69,349	k. A.
1956	93,100	245,800
1973	333,906	748,300
1983	476,218	1,340,646
1993	947,483	2,919,773
2007 Estimate	2,207,794	8,363,915

Education

Khartoum is the main location for most of Sudan's top educational bodies, including but not limited to:

High Schools

• Unity High School. The school came to international attention on November 25, 2007 when one of its teachers, Gillian Gibbons from Liverpool, England, was arrested by Sudanese authorities for allegedly insulting Islam by allowing the children in her class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad".
• Comboni, Khartoum American School and St. Francis

Universities

• University of Khartoum. Founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902, it was later renamed to share the name of the city in the 1930s.
• Juba University, relocated from Juba during the civil war. Currently, the only university in Sudan which maintained English as language of instruction. Plans exist to relocate the university or part of it back to Southern Sudan.
• Computerman College, the college for computer studies. And recently added other departments.
• Al Neelain University
• Sudan University of Science and Technology. One of the main Engineering and technical schools in Sudan founded in 1932 as Khartoum Technical Institute and then later on 1991 turned into Sudan University of Science and Technology.
• Bayan Science and Technology University
• The Academy of Medical Sciences and Technology. Better known as AMST, it was founded in 1996 by Prof. Mamoun Humaida and built in Khartoum.
• Omdurman Islamic University
• Ahfad University for Women
• Academy of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum
• Comboni College for Science and Technology, Khartoum

Of interest

An alleged statue of Natakamani at the front of the National Museum of Sudan

Museums

The largest museum in Khartoum, and indeed 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.

Shopping

Khartoum doesn't have as many open markets or souqs as neighboring Omdurman, but one of the largest is the Souq Arabi. The market is huge and 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 St. and Al Jamhoriyah St. are considered the most famous high streets in Khartoum State.

Located in the southern suburb Arkeweet, recently the first medium scale shopping mall opened. Afra Mall mall with a supermarket, retail outlets, coffee shops, a bowling alley, and a movie theatre.

Botanical Gardens

Khartoum is home to a small botanical garden, in the Mogran district of the city.

Clubs

Sudan sufis in Khartoum

Khartoum is home to several clubs such as the Sailing Club, German Club, Greek Hotel, Coptic Club, Syrian Club, International Club etc.

See also

• Khartoum the 1966 film starring Charlton Heston and Laurence Olivier

External links

• Encyclopaedia Britannica Khartoum Retrieved December 13, 2008.
• World Fact Book 2008 Sudan Retrieved December 13, 2008.
• U.S. Department of State Khartoum: Sudan Retrieved December 13, 2008.
• Earth from Space - Khartoum
• GNS: Country Files - National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
• Al-Sunut Development Project - Al-Sunut Development Company LTD

• [1] - Khartoum and Khartoum Variations are titles of Corwood Industries releases #0781 and #0782, respectively. (Corwood Industries PO Box 15375 Houston TX 77220)

References

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