Nubian Desert

Nubian Desert, region in northeastern Sudan, bounded by the Nile River valley on the west and the Red Sea Hills on the east. Primarily a rocky sandstone plateau, the Nubian Desert is a poor, remote part of the Sahara. Although scattered towns and villages exist along the Nile, life in the desert's interior is precarious and generally limited to areas close to the desert's seasonal watercourses, or wadis. The climate is hot and dry with a brief rainy season during July and August. Rainfall is scanty and averages less than 15 mm (less than 0.6 in) annually in the northern town of WādīḨalfā’ on Lake Sudan (called Lake Nasser in Egypt) and no more than 40 mm (1.6 in) per year in the south near the town of ‘Aţbarah. The average daily temperature in June, the hottest month, is about 45° C (about 110° F).

Economic activities in the Nubian Desert are restricted to subsistence agriculture and raising produce for sale at local markets. Farmers grow date palm and fruit trees, grains, and vegetables along the Nile and wherever else the desert's limited surface and groundwater resources will allow. Livestock, particularly goats, are raised as well. The interior of the Nubian Desert along the Wadi al Āllāqī, which drains the Red Sea Hills into the Nile between Aswān and WādīḨalfā’, is a major route for herding camels to meat markets in Egypt. The region's low rainfall, thin and poorly developed soils, and rocky plateau topography limit the width of the Nile's floodplain, and thus the extent of fertile land. The agricultural zone along the Nile is therefore unsuitable for large-scale irrigation projects. Instead, farmers are restricted to small, intensively cultivated fields nourished by water raised from the Nile by diesel-powered pumps. Although small deposits of gold, copper, diorite, emeralds, and semiprecious stones were extracted from the Nubian Desert during ancient times, these minerals now occur in insufficient quantities to make exploitation profitable.

Few formal transportation routes exist in the Nubian Desert. The Nile's great loop in northern Sudan is broken by a series of cataracts, or waterfalls, that make navigation difficult. A railroad line runs from WādīḨalfā’ to AbūḨamad, and from there a branch line extends to Kuraymah. The region's one developed, but unpaved, road follows the railroad, while short segments of road parallel the course of the Nile in the agricultural area. The majority of roads in the region are unpaved and poorly maintained. Riverboats, which travel between the Nile's cataracts, are the region's main form of transportation.

The Nubian Desert is part of the ancient region called Nubia, specifically Upper Nubia, which was occupied successively by Egyptian and Kushite (sometimes called Ethiopian) kingdoms for several thousand years. These kingdoms ruled along the corridor of the Nile and derived importance from their strategic location, which linked sub-Saharan and northern Africa. The area became an important cultural and trade center. Nubia was converted from paganism to Christianity in the 6th century ad. In the 14th century the region was gradually converted to Islam by Arab conquerors, who brought Arabic language and culture to Nubia. Nubian sites from the pre-Christian era are of great interest to archaeologists and historians. Between ‘Abrī in the north and the area of Kuraymah and Marawī in the south, on both banks of the Nile, there is a series of modestly scaled but important and accessible temples, pyramids, and other monuments that attest to the power and prosperity of the Nubian kingdoms. The ruins linked to Napata, one of the ancient capitals of the Kushite kingdoms, which are located in the present-day area of Kuraymah and Marawī, are of particular significance.