Sudan: landmarks, animals & facts for kids

Sudan is a large country in north-east Africa. It borders Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and has a coast on the Red Sea. Its capital, Khartoum, stands where the Blue Nile and the White Nile meet to form the main River Nile.

Sudan is known for the Nile, wide deserts and the ancient Kingdom of Kush, whose kings once ruled Egypt too. On the globe you can find the Pyramids of Meroë, a field of steep, narrow pyramids standing in the desert that were built as royal tombs more than 2,000 years ago.

Geography and nature

The north of Sudan is part of the Sahara and the Nubian Desert, where it almost never rains. The Nile winds through this dry land, and most towns and farms lie along its banks. Further south, the land changes to dry grassland and savanna with acacia trees. In the west, the Jebel Marra mountains rise in Darfur. The Red Sea coast has some of the clearest waters and coral reefs in the region, protected in Sanganeb Marine National Park.

People, languages and culture

Arabic and English are the official languages, and many other languages are spoken, such as Nubian, Beja and Fur. Most Sudanese are Muslim. Guests are welcomed with strong coffee called jebena, poured from a round clay pot. A favourite food is ful medames, slow-cooked fava beans, eaten with bread, and kisra, a thin fermented flatbread. Sudan is the world's largest producer of gum arabic, a natural tree resin used in foods, drinks and paints.

History in a nutshell

Thousands of years ago, the Kingdom of Kush grew along the Nile; around 2,700 years ago its kings conquered Egypt and ruled as pharaohs. Later Kush's capital moved to Meroë. Christian Nubian kingdoms followed, and then Islamic sultanates. In the 1800s Egypt, then under Ottoman rule, conquered Sudan, and later Britain and Egypt governed it together. Sudan became independent on 1 January 1956. In 2011 the south became the separate country of South Sudan. Sudan has gone through long periods of conflict that have caused great hardship.