The
Dongola Reach is a reach of approximately 160 km in length stretching from the Fourth downriver to the Third Cataracts of the Nile in
Upper Nubia,
Sudan.
[ Geography of Nubia.] Named after the Sudanese town of
Dongola which dominates this part of the river, the reach was the heart of ancient
Nubia.
The Southern and the Northern Dongola Reach
The area where the
Nile flows from the Fourth Cataract to the southwest making a great S-shaped bend following the structure of the Central African Shear Zone is the
Southern Dongola Reach. The area where it flows northward out of the bend and through to the Third Cataract is the
Northern Dongola Reach.
Geography
In the
Dongola Reach the Nile is without any significant
Perennial stream tributary inputs. It passes over mostly
sandstone and is flanked by wide alluvial
. In the
Southern Dongola Reach the Nile is joined by the extinct river systems of Wadi Abu Dom,
Wadi Muqaddam,
Wadi Howar and
Wadi Al-Malik. The
Northern Dongola Reach contains cultivable basins on the eastern side of the Nile valley floor such as the
Kerma Basin, a large fertile flood plain traversed by a series of
.
History
The
Dongola Reach contains archaeological material from numerous cultural groups from across the history of the Middle Nile region, including the
Kerma culture, the Kingdom of Kush, and the medieval kingdom of
Makuria.
The area of the
Southern Dongola Reach served as a connection between the
Red Sea in the east and Wadi Howar in the west, linking the Nile Valley with inner Africa.
Abundant archaeological sites belonging to different archaeological periods area lined on the banks of old Nile channels in the
Northern Dongola Reach.
Affad 23 is an archaeological site located in the
Affad Basin region of southern Dongola Reach in northern
Sudan,
which hosts "the well-preserved remains of prehistoric camps (relics of the oldest open-air
hut in the world) and diverse
hunting and
Hunter-gatherer loci some 50,000 years old".
