Sudan Geography
Sudan is located in northeast Africa. It is bounded by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest.
It was the largest country in Africa until its separation from South Sudan in 2011. It is currently the third largest country, after Algeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Nile River is the main geographic feature of Sudan, running through the entire country from South Sudan (White Nile) and Ethiopia (Blue Nile) to Egypt in the north, and most of the country lies in his basin.
The country's main wealth is oil, but it also has chrome, copper, iron, mica, silver, gold, tungsten, and zinc mines.
Relief
.jpg)
The vast plain that forms Sudan is bounded on the west by the Congo-Nile divide and the Darfur highlands, and on the east by the Ethiopian massif and the Itbay region, whose hills border the Red Sea.
To the north of Sudan, between Khartoum and the Egyptian border, stretches a sand desert that belongs to the Sahara and is crossed from south to north by the Nile River, which divides it in two: to the east, the Nubia desert, and to the west, the Libyan desert. They are very similar, with rocks and dunes, but there are only oases in Libya, such as Bir in Natrūn, though not enough to support a population. In this region, only an area about 2 km wide along the Nile River is habitable.
The western plain is made up primarily of Nubian sandstone, a variety of sandstone that has thin layers of marine clays and marls and is brown or reddish in color.
To the west of Sudan lie the regions known as Darfur and Kordofan, although the state of West Kordofan disappeared in 2005. Both regions total 850,000 km². In this vast area there are hardly any water sources, and people and animals are forced to gather in the few that exist.
Western Darfur, bordering Chad, is an undulating plain dominated by the Marra Mountains, or Jebel Marra, a chain of volcanic peaks with the country's highest altitude, 3,042 m at Deriba crater. They form the southern limit of the Sahel, rising some 2,600 m above Chad, and 900 m above the Sudanese desert. The drainage of these mountains, somewhat rainier than the rest, supposes settlements and a vegetation of the xerophilous mountain type of the Eastern Sahara. To the north there is a region called jizzu, benefiting from sporadic rains and also part of Chad, with some wadis. To the south lies the qoz, an area of sand dunes where the rains occasionally cause a layer of grass to grow.
Slightly further south, on the border with the Central African Republic, the Darfur Plateau forms the watershed between the Nile and Congo rivers.
Towards the central zone, isolated mesas appear, (sandstone plateau elevations) that towards the south become inselbergs, isolated granite hills that emerge abruptly, and that, in the southern tip of Kordofan, form the landscape of the Nuba Mountains, to the border with South Sudan. Only the Ingessana Hills, where there are chrome and platinum mines, break the landscape.
In the southeast, between the Dinder and Rahad rivers, tributaries of the Blue Nile, is the most productive area. On the gentle slopes that descend from the relatively humid Ethiopian massif and South Sudan, between the Blue Nile and the White Nile, on the clayey plains known as jazirah (peninsula in Arabic), it has developed the large Gezira project, where cotton is grown for export.
In the east and northeast, between desert and semi-desert, are the regions of Butana, between the Nile, Ethiopia, Khartoum and the Atbara River; the delta of the Mareb River; and the Red Sea Hills, which form steep escarpments on a coastal plain that is between 16 km in the south and 24 km wide at the border with Egypt, festooned by dunes and coral reefs. The Mareb, or Qash, river, which rises in Eritrea and follows the border with Ethiopia on its way to the Nile, disappears into the sands of the eastern Sudanese plain, in an inland delta with trees and shrubs, where camels graze and cotton is grown.
The border with South Sudan is scalloped by a long clay plain that runs from the Central African Republic in the west to Ethiopia in the east. It is covered by savannah grasslands whose richness depends on the rainfall received. It is part of the Sahelian acacia savannah ecoregion in the north and the wetter southern eastern Sudanic savannah, which straddles the border with Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is part of the realm of elephants. The plain is cut by the White Nile, which receives the al-Arab river from the west, which comes from the Marra mountains and flows into Lake No, in South Sudan. Some of its tributaries come from the border area between the Central African Republic, Sudan and South Sudan, where the Radom National Park is located and which constitutes the Congo-Nile watershed.
The Red Sea hills, from the English Red Sea hills, also known as the Itbay mountains, for occupying the Itbay region, form a 1700 km long mountain range that extends from northwest to southeast along the coast, between Egypt and Sudan, from the Gulf of Suez to the first foothills of the Ethiopian massif. It is made up of Precambrian schists and gneiss that contain uranium, titanium and gold. Rising above the Nubian desert to the west and falling sheer to the coastal plain to the east, it culminates in the north at 2,215 m Mount Asoteriba and in the center near Port Sudan at Mt. Oda, 2,259 m.
Hydrography
The Nile River is dominant throughout Sudan, as all basins and streams flow into its course. The White Nile enters through the border of South Sudan, to the southeast, 100 km south of Kosti and maintains a slight gradient up to Khartoum, where it joins the Blue Nile, coming from Ethiopia and causing the river to flood in the rainy season. The Nile continues to the north making a wide curve at Abu Hamad, 550 km from Khartoum, to the south and again at Ed Debba to the north, trapping the Bayuda desert in the middle. Few tributaries reach the Nile as it travels through Sudan, and almost all of them perish in the desert sands. The Howar, Milk and Ghalla wadis stand out to the west, and to the east, the Atbara River, the last of its great tributaries before the delta, coming from Ethiopia, to the east, and the Mareb River, which perishes in the desert.
Several large dams have been built in Sudan to harness the resources of the Nile and fulfill ambitious agricultural plans. The most important are:
- Jebel Aulia reservoir, White Nile.
- Khashm el Girba reservoir, in the Atbara River, Nile tributary.
- Merowe reservoir, in the Nile, near Merowe.
- Roseires reservoir, in the Blue Nile.
- Sennar reservoir, in the Blue Nile.
- Complex of reservoirs of the Atbara and Setit rivers. It comprises two reservoirs, the Rumela reservoir in the upper part of the Atbara River, and in Burdana reservoir, in the Setit River. The two reservoirs would be connected because they are where the Atbara and Setit rivers are joined.
Climate
Sudan's climate is desert in the north and on the Red Sea coast, and semi-desert or semi-arid in the south, affected by monsoons.
On the Red Sea coast, winter is mild and summer is hot and humid. In Port Sudan, temperatures range in winter between 19 and 27oC, and in summer, between 29 and 41.orC. The rains along the entire coast barely exceed 100 mm and fall between October and January, with half, about 50 mm, in November, even with heat (24-31.oC). There are often mists and storms can be sporadically intense.
The north of the country belongs to the area of the Sahara, both the Libyan desert to the west and the Nubian desert to the east. The latter lacks oases and settlements, except on the banks or near the Nile, where remains of the Nubian civilization remain in Meroe. In Wadi Halfa, to the north, on the Egyptian border and next to Lake Nasser formed by the Aswan Dam, it gets cold at night in winter, with daily temperatures ranging between 11 and 24 oC in January, but between April and October is always hot. Between May and September the maximum always exceeds 40.oC, with records of 50-52.oC, and the minimums usually do not go below 25.oC. It does not rain, but sandstorms occur at any time due to the wind.
In the Bayuda desert, some showers are already possible due to the influence of the monsoon, and in Khartoum, at an altitude of 400 m, where the Blue and White Niles meet, the monsoon hits in summer, between June and September, with an average of 160 mm, 70 of them in August, but only on 3 or 5 rainy days. In total, it rains an average of 14 days a year. Temperatures are always high, from 16-31.oC in winter, and from 27- 41.oC in May and June. In November, from 21-35.oC.
When the monsoon arrives, between May and June, the humid air from the south produces a phenomenon known as haboob, which means 'strong wind'. in Arabic. It is typical of Sudan and Arabia, it occurs during the movement of the intertropical front to the north, when the storms generated by the rising air sink, the air falls to the ground and expands around raising clouds of dust in the form of sand storms.
In the Marra mountains, to the southwest, the temperatures are milder, due to the altitude, and the rains are more abundant, of 600-700 mm, as in the south.
In southern Sudan, rainfall gradually increases to 700 mm on the border with South Sudan. In the Nuba Mountains, the rains last from May to October, although mostly from June to September, and it is always hot. At Nyala, to the southwest, at 650m altitude in South Darfur, slightly more than 400mm falls, mostly between June and September. Temperatures range from 15-31.oC in winter, and 23-38.oC in May, before the rains.
The Red Sea Hills are desert in the north and tropical semi-desert in the south, with rainfall up to 200mm. To the west there is a network of wadis leading to the Nile and it can snow in the heights. There are tamarinds, sycamores and acacias.
Sudan Protected Areas
In Sudan there are 23 protected areas that cover an area of about 42,698 km², 2.28 percent of the territory, and 10,662 km² of marine surface, 16 percent of the 66,786 km² that belong to Sudan. Among the protected areas there are 4 national parks, 2 marine national parks, 2 conservation areas, 2 wildlife sanctuaries, 1 nature reserve, 4 bird sanctuaries and 2 game reserves. In addition, there are 2 Unesco biosphere reserves, 1 world heritage site and 3 Ramsar sites.
- Dinder National Park, 10 000 km2, in the southeast, border with Ethiopia. It is also a Ramsar site. Numerous wetlands in the rivers that descend from the Ethiopian mountains to the plain of the Nile. Important migratory area of birds and numerous herbivores. There are also archaeological remains of the Sultanate of Sennar.
- Radom National Park, 12,500 km2, in the southwest, border with Central African Republic. To the southwest of Lake Kundi in Southern Darfur, limited by the Adda and Umblasha rivers. Treeed hills, there are elephants, lions, guepardos and giraffes in a small number due to defecting by climate change.
- Suakin archipelago national park, 1500 km2, in the Red Sea, near the border with Eritrea.
- Jebel Hassania National Park, in the desert of Nubia, of small extension, to raise dork gazelles.
- Sanganeb Atoll National Marine Park and Dungonab Bay, and Mukkavar Island National Marine Park. Although the atoll is 12 km2, in the Red Sea, together they cover 2600 km2. Sanganeb is an isolated coral reef in the centre of the Red Sea with an atoll 25 km from the Sudanese coast. It is attached to Dungonab Bay and Mukkavar Island, 125 km north of Port Sudan. Coral reefs, mangroves, beaches and islets. The greatest mantarrays in the world.
Among the Ramsar sites is the Dinder National Park, which has forty wetlands and lagoons formed in the meanders of the Rahad and Dinder rivers, with their tributaries, and also:
- Suakin-Golfo de Agig, Ramsar site 1860, 11,250 km2, in the Red Sea, next to the Suakin archipelago, south of Port Sudan. Turtle, dolphins, etc.
- Dungonab-Marsa Waiai Bay, Ramsar site 1859, 2800 km2, Red Sea coast, north of Port Sudan. Reefs, mangroves, sebkhas and reefs that allow the existence of threatened species.
Population of Sudan and ethnic groups
Sudan had an estimated population of 43.1 million in 2019, the majority of whom were descendants of emigrants from the nearby Arabian peninsula, who make up 70% of the total population and are the largest ethnic group. In 2013 there were less than 35 million inhabitants, so the increase has been very significant. It is said that there are about 600 tribes that speak more than 400 languages and dialects, although they can be grouped into just over 150 groups. The majority are Muslims.
With the exception of the strip of settlements that corresponds to the bed of the Nile River, which crosses the country from south to north and enters a completely desert area in the north, the population is dispersed throughout the southern area, on the border with South Sudan, where vegetation and water sources are abundant, around Khartoum, where the White Nile and Blue Nile meet, and in South Darfur, to the southwest. Between 41% and 43% of the population is under 15 years of age, while those over 65 years of age constitute 3%; in Europe, those under 15 are 15% and those over 65, between 18% and 20%. The median age in Sudan is 17.9 years. The annual growth rate of 2.93%, with 4.85 children per woman in 2018. Schooling ends at 8 years. The urban population makes up 35%, with 5.5 million in Khartoum and 834,000 in Niala.
Ethnic groups
Arabs are the largest ethnic group; however, they are subdivided into thousands of ethnic groups and subgroups distinguished by their particular Muslim sect, Arabic dialect, and customs tailored to the particular region. Not only are the Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula part of this group, but also the Arabized tribes over the centuries.
- Sudanese Arabs, 13.5 million
- Syrian Arabs or Levians, 101,000
- Egyptian Arabs, 690.000
- Yemeni Arabs, 27,000
Among the Arabized with more than 1 million individuals:
- Baggara, 1 million
- Bederia, 1 million
- Gaaliin, 3.4 million
- Gawamaa, 1 million
- Guahyna, over 2 million
- Kawahia, 1 million
Note: Figures are obtained from the Joshua Project.
Contenido relacionado
Malaysia geography
Federal District
Abona granadilla