SD · Curated travel guide
Nubian Desert, Jebel Barkal, Buhen and 7 more — what each one is, and why it is worth the detour.
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Chosen from everything Wikidata knows about Sudan and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions describe them, which is about as close to "famous" as open data gets.
Desert east of the Nile in Sudan and Eritrea
A desert in the east of the Sahara, covering about 400,000 km² of northern Eritrea and northeastern Sudan, between the Red Sea and the Nile. Rough and rocky, it has some dunes, and many wadis that dry up before they reach the Nile.
Photo: David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0
Archaeological Site in Sudan
Also written Gebel Barkal, a flat-topped mesa 104 meters high beside Karima, in Sudan's Northern State, near the Nile in Nubia, 400 km north of Khartoum. It became sacred both to ancient Kush and to the Egyptians who occupied it.
Photo: LassiHU, CC BY-SA 4.0
Ancient Egyptian fortress
In Ancient Greek Βοὥν (Bohón), an important ancient Egyptian settlement on the Nile's west bank just below the Second Cataract, in today's Northern State, Sudan. It began in the Old Kingdom as an Egyptian colonial town, known especially for smelting copper.
Photo: Franck Monnier ( Bakha ), CC BY 2.5
Dam in Ad Damazin, Sudan
A dam on the Blue Nile at Ad Damazin, Sudan, just upstream of Er Roseires: a concrete buttress dam 1 km wide and up to 68 m high, with an earth dam on each side.
Photo: SimonChilly, CC BY 3.0
Dam in Merowe, Sudan
Also called Merowe High Dam, Merowe Multi-Purpose Hydro Project or Hamdab Dam, a large dam close to Merowe Town, in northern Sudan, about 350 kilometres (220 mi) north of Khartoum, the capital. By its size, it is the largest present-day hydropower project in Africa.
Photo: Lubumbashi ( talk ) 09:30, 8 July 2009 (UTC), Public domain
Volcanic formation in Darfur, Sudan
A caldera of Pleistocene or Holocene age in Darfur, Sudan, one of the Marra Mountains volcanoes, on the Darfur dome. Like the volcanism of the Meidob and Tagabo Hills, it may come from a mantle plume.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Dam in Al Jazirah, Sudan
Built on the Blue Nile to irrigate the land, close to the town of Sennar in Sudan's Al Jazirah region: a dam 3,025 metres (9,925 ft) in length and as much as 40 metres (130 ft) high.
Photo: NASA, Public domain
Reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan
A large reservoir in northern Sudan and southern Egypt, formed when the Aswan High Dam was built, and one of the biggest man-made lakes on Earth.
Photo: Przemyslaw " Blueshade " Idzkiewicz, CC BY-SA 2.0
River
A wadi in Chad and Sudan.
Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Public domain
University in Khartoum State, Sudan
One of Sudan's biggest public universities, with ten campuses in Khartoum state. Its main campus is in Khartoum's Al Mugran area, where the Blue Nile and the White Nile meet.
Photo: Safa.M.Elfatih, CC BY-SA 3.0
Officially the Republic of the Sudan, a Northeast African country. Egypt lies to its north, Libya to its northwest, Chad to its west, the Central African Republic to its southwest, South Sudan to its south, Ethiopia and Eritrea to its southeast, and the Red Sea to its east. With 51.8 million people as of 2025 and 1,886,068 square kilometres, it is Africa's third-largest country by area.
Officially The Republic of the Sudan.
Based on the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: the facts are Wikipedia's, the wording is this site's.
This guide lists 10: Nubian Desert, Jebel Barkal, Buhen and Roseires Dam and others.
By machine, from open data, with no human ranking them and nobody able to pay for a place on the list. Everything Wikidata records in Sudan that is a building, a landform, a protected area or a tourist attraction, has coordinates, a photograph and an English Wikipedia article, is ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions wrote about it. Provinces, cities, airports, stations and stretches of sea shared with the neighbours are filtered out.
Arabic, English. The currency is SDG.
A travel eSIM is usually the cheapest way, and avoids a roaming bill. The plans suggested at the foot of this guide start at $8.59 for 1GB for 7 days. The eSIM is data-only and sits alongside your normal SIM, so calls, texts and WhatsApp keep working on your own number.
Zain. Your phone picks whichever has the best signal where you are, the same way a local phone does.
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| Plan | Data | Valid | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB for 7 days Cheapest | 1 GB | 7 days | $8.59 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $22.91 | Get it → |
| 5GB for 30 days | 5 GB | 30 days | $38.18 | Get it → |
No app needed. Install by QR code before you fly, keep your own number for calls, and it connects the moment you land.
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