Nubian Desert

Nubian Desert, region in north-east Africa, in the north-eastern corner of the Republic of Sudan, east of longitude 30° east, between the River Nile and the Red Sea coastal mountain range. The region straddles latitude 20° north, between Egypt and the Nile's fifth cataract north of Atbara in Sudan. It is a poor and remote part of the Sahara (as-Sahra an-Nubiya) and sustains only scattered towns and villages along the lifeline of the Nile. Elsewhere, life is extremely precarious and is limited to the generally dry, episodically flowing streambeds (wadis) that dissect what is primarily a rocky sandstone plateau stretching between the 2,000-m (6,500-ft) high uplands along the Red Sea and the Nile valley. The climate is generally hot and dry with a brief summer rainy season in July and August. Rainfall is extremely scanty and averages less than 15 mm (0.5 in) per year in the north at Wādī Ḩalfā’ on Lake Sudan (the southern end of what is called Lake Nasser in Egypt) and no more than 40 mm (1.5 in) per year in the south at Atbara (on the Nile). The average daily maximum temperature in the hottest month (June) reaches 45° C (110° F).

Economic activities are thus restricted to localized subsistence and market cultivation (date palms, grain, fruit trees, and vegetable gardens) and animal herding (primarily goats) along the Nile and wherever else the limited groundwater and episodical surface water resources of the desert interior allow. The interior of the Nubian Desert, along the Wādī Ḩalfā’, which drains the Red Sea Hills into the Nile halfway between Aswān and Wādī Ḩalfā’, is a major corridor of movement for camels destined for the meat markets of urban Egypt. Topography, which limits the width of the Nile's floodplain, and soils make the agricultural area along the Nile unsuitable for large-scale irrigation projects. Farmers can cultivate only small, intensively worked fields nourished by water raised from the Nile by diesel-powered pumps. Transport is difficult in the Nubian Desert, for few formal routes exist. The Nile's great loop in northern Sudan is cut off by a railway that runs from Wādī Ḩalfā’ to Abu Hamad, where a branch line departs for Kuraymah. The region's one true road follows the course of the Nile, and riverboats ply in stages between the Nile's cataracts. Although small deposits of gold, copper, diorite, emeralds, and semi-precious stones were extracted from the Nubian Desert in antiquity, these minerals occur in quantities too modest to be exploited today.

Historically, the Nubian Desert is part of the ancient region of Nubia, specifically Upper Nubia, which was alternately occupied by Egyptian and Ethiopian (Cushite) dynasties. These small states derived their importance from their location, which linked sub-Saharan and northern Africa. Converted from paganism to Christianity in the 6th century ad, these states were gradually transformed into Islamic states after 1300 ad, a process that brought with it a steady increase in Arabic language and culture. Sites from the pre-Christian era are of great interest to archaeologists and historians today. Between Abri in the north and the area of Kuraymah and Marawi in the south, on both banks of the Nile, a series of modestly scaled but important and accessible temples, pyramids, and other monuments can be found (including the statues of ancient Nubian kings excavated in early 2003) that attest to the power and prosperity of the Nubian kingdoms. The remnant structures linked to Napata, one of the ancient capitals of the region's Cushite kingdoms in the present-day area of Kuraymah and Marawi, are of particular significance.