Khartoum is an intrinsically ugly town. Home to 5 million Sudanese it is squat and low rise. Most of the buildings are a monotonous sandy colour and there no supermarkets nor lively shopping areas.
Heightened security from decades of war restricts photography. The best view of the only natural attraction, the confluence of the White and Blue Nile is from a road bridge which is guarded by police and no photos are allowed.
History is what dusty little Khartoum specialises in and in this area it has attractions galore! Most notable is the magnificent National Museum with its treasure trove of relics from the time of the ancient Egyptians. Smaller than the Cairo museum it makes up for the lack of size with quality and intimacy. Anthony and I were the only two westerners there.
The other historical attractions are 2000 years younger dating from the end of the 19th century and the British occupation of Sudan already alluded to. Perhaps the most poignant is Lord Kitchener’s Nile gunboat El Malik used in the battle of Omdurman where the British set out to avenge General Gordon’s murder and to reacquire Sudan. Sadly lies unloved and ramshackle partially buried in Nile silt well away from the water’s edge and used as a storage dump by the Blue Nile sailing club.
The Mahdi’s mausoleum, north of the city centre in Omdurman is a more recent but no less impressive edifice. Marking a memorial to the man who led the Islamic uprising that took Khartoum and killed the charismatic Gordon.
