Dongola

Town in Northern State, northern Sudan; population (2001 est) 16,900. It has palm groves and produces dates; there is some light engineering and livestock rearing. There are road and river links to Khartoum. The town was founded in about 1811 to replace Old Dongola, 120 km/75 mi upriver, which was destroyed by the Mamelukes. Old Dongola, a trading centre on a caravan route, was the capital of the Christian kingdom of Nubia between the 6th and 14th centuries.

Dongola lies on a long, narrow plain, above the third cataract on the west bank of the River Nile. To the east is the Nubian desert, and to the west the Libyan desert. Across the River Nile from Dongola are the ruins of the Temple of Kawa.

Dongola was controlled by Egypt from 1820 until the Mahdi insurrection of 1885. In 1896 it was captured by General Kitchener during the British invasion of the Sudan. Subsequently the town was largely rebuilt with a grid of streets, a central market, and administrative buildings.