Khartoum

Khartoum or Khartum, city in east central Sudan, capital of Sudan and of Khartoum Province, just south of the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers. The economic focus of the nation's largest urban area, the city is linked by bridges across the Blue Nile to Khartoum North and across the White Nile to Omdurman.

A well-planned city with tree-lined streets, Khartoum is the country's administrative and transport centre. Much of its trade is derived from river traffic on the Nile and from farms of the large Gezira (Arabic, “island”) irrigated area to the south. Industries include printing, food processing, and textile and glass manufacturing. The University of Khartoum (1956), Cairo University Khartoum Branch (1955), and a number of specialized technical colleges are here, as are the Sudan National Museum and the Ethnographical Museum. Landmarks include the Republican Palace and the Parliament buildings.

Khartoum was founded in the early 1820s by Muhammad Ali as an Egyptian military post for captured territory in the Sudan. It grew rapidly into a flourishing administrative, commercial, and trade centre. In 1884-1885, during a revolt against Anglo-Egyptian rule, the city was besieged for ten months by the forces of Muhammad Ahmad Abd Allah, known as the Mahdi, in an action that culminated in the massacre of the entire Anglo-Egyptian garrison and its British leader, Charles George Gordon. The city was recaptured in 1898 by the British under H. H. Kitchener, who subsequently directed its reconstruction. Khartoum was the capital of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from 1899 to 1956, when it became the capital of newly independent Sudan. Population 4,286,000 (2003 estimate).