The Khartoum-Omdurman conurbation: a growing megacity at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile Rivers

ABSTRACT

Khartoum is one of the largest cities in Africa, located immediately south of the junction of the Blue and White Nile rivers in central Sudan. The growth of the Greater Khartoum-Omdurman conurbation arose – without a proper urban plan – from the agricultural wealth created through the completion of three dams, and mostly in the last three decades. Urban expansion was enabled by and helped to enhance the major agricultural expansion of the Gezira clay plains located to the south between the lower Blue and White Nile rivers. The region has been a focus of human settlement for at least 8,000 years, initially by semi-sedentary groups with a fishing-hunting-gathering lifestyle and later by Neolithic groups as shown by hundreds of archaeological sites. Today, Khartoum is a desert city, still very vulnerable to floods triggered by intense convectional storms. Such extreme events may become more common in future, representing a major geomorphological hazard. Moreover, uncontrolled urban and agricultural development is threatening most of the cultural heritage of the region.

KEYWORDS:

• Khartoum-Omdurman conurbation
• Nile Rivers
• urban expansion
• geomorphological hazard
• archaeological sites
• rescue archaeology

Acknowledgments

The archaeological survey and excavations of the western White Nile region were directed by D. Usai and S. Salvatori, and performed since 2000 by the Italian Archaeological Mission of the Centro Studi Sudanesi & Sub-Sahariani (Treviso, Italy) in the framework of the el-Salha/al-Khiday Project established to document prehistoric and historic archaeological evidence. From 2000 to 2011, the activities were performed under the aegis of the Italian Institute for Africa and Orient (Roma). The General Director of the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums and the other Sudanese colleagues of the NCAM are thanked for constant support. Finally, a great contribution to the success of the project is also due to the Italian Embassy in Sudan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for fieldwork has been provided by Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Centro Studi Sudanesi e Sub-Sahariani to Donatella Usai, and from the University of Milano (Contributo Rettorale and Fondi Speciali per le Ricerche Archeologiche 2015–2017) to Andrea Zerboni. Contributions to the al-Khiday Project are also provided by the Universities of Parma and Padova. The elaboration of GIS data was supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) through the project Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018–2022 (WP4 – Risorse del Patrimonio Culturale) awarded to the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra ‘A. Desio’ of the University of Milano; Università degli Studi di Milano.