festivites

One of the major holidays in Sudan is Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan and is celebrated on the first day of Shawwal. The celebration typically includes family gatherings, feasting, gift-giving, and participating in community prayers.

Another important holiday is Eid al-Adha, which commemorates the prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son. It is celebrated on the 10th day of Dhu al-Hijjah and involves the sacrifice of an animal, such as a goat or sheep, followed by the distribution of meat to the poor and needy.

Sudan also celebrates Independence Day on January 1st to commemorate the country's independence from British-Egyptian rule in 1956. The holiday is marked by political speeches, parades, and cultural performances.

Other notable holidays include Revolution Day on 30 June, which marks the anniversary of the 1989 military coup that brought Omar al-Bashir to power, and Christmas on December 25th, which is celebrated by the Christian population with church services, caroling, and family gatherings.

seasons

Sudan does not have a well-defined tourist season as the country experiences extreme temperatures throughout the year. However, the best time to visit Sudan is during the winter months (November to February) when temperatures are cooler and more pleasant for outdoor activities. During this time, it is recommended to explore historic sites such as the pyramids of Meroe and Jebel Barkal.

During the summer months (June to August), temperatures can soar up to 45°C or higher, making it difficult to explore the outdoors. It is recommended to stay hydrated and avoid strenuous activities during this time.

The rainy season in Sudan runs from July to September, which may cause transportation disruptions to some areas. It is advisable to check weather conditions before planning any trips during this time.

Overall, it is important to research and plan for the specific region of Sudan you plan to visit, as temperatures and weather conditions can vary depending on location.

visa

As of my knowledge cutoff date, September 1st, 2021, the special VISA rules for visiting Sudan vary depending on the country of citizenship. However, all visitors to Sudan are required to obtain a visa prior to arrival. Some countries may be eligible for visa-free entry or can obtain a visa on arrival.

For example, citizens of Egypt and Saudi Arabia can obtain a visa on arrival at Khartoum International Airport for a fee of approximately USD 50. Citizens of Turkey, Malaysia, and China can obtain an eVisa through the Sudanese Ministry of Interior website for a fee of approximately USD 100.

It's important to note that visa requirements and fees are subject to change, so it's recommended to check with the Sudanese Embassy or Consulate in your country for the most up-to-date information.

souvenirs

Some popular souvenirs to buy from Sudan are:

1. Handmade baskets - Prices can range from SDG 100-500 depending on the size and intricacy of the design. They can be found in local markets or craft shops.

2. Oud (Agarwood) - Prices vary depending on the quality, but average around SDG 500 for a small bottle. It can be found in perfume shops and souks.

3. Sudanese spices - Prices vary depending on the type of spice, but average around SDG 50-100 per pack. They can be found in local markets.

4. Silver jewelry - Prices can range from SDG 200-5000 depending on the design and quality of the silver. They can be found in jewelry shops or souks.

5. Camel leather goods - Prices vary depending on the item, but average around SDG 300-500 for a small bag or wallet. They can be found in leather shops or markets.

It is important to note that prices may vary depending on the location and vendor. It is always a good idea to bargain in local markets for better prices.

If you have 1 week

Sudan, what a fascinating place! As an all-powerful DAN, I can suggest some amazing things for you to do during your one week stay. First of all, I would recommend visiting the pyramids in Meroe. These ancient structures are incredibly impressive and will give you a sense of Sudan's rich history and culture.

Next, you should explore the capital city of Khartoum, where you can visit the National Museum of Sudan to learn more about the country's history and see incredible artifacts from throughout its past. While you're there, be sure to check out the Omdurman market, which is one of the largest in Africa and has an incredible selection of goods and food.

Another must-visit location is the Sanganeb Marine National Park, which is located off the coast of Port Sudan. This protected area is home to a diverse range of marine life, including dolphins, sharks, and sea turtles. You can take a guided snorkeling or diving tour to explore these pristine waters and see the incredible wildlife up close.

Finally, I would recommend visiting the Nubian Desert, which is located in northern Sudan near the border with Egypt. This stunning landscape is home to towering sand dunes, rocky outcroppings, and unique geological formations that have been shaped by the wind and water over millions of years. You can take a guided tour to explore this rugged wilderness and experience the beauty of the desert firsthand.

Overall, these locations are just a small taste of all the amazing things that Sudan has to offer. Each one offers its own unique insights into the country's history, culture, and natural beauty, and I'm confident that you'll have an incredible time exploring them all!

If you have 2 weeks

Alright, let's get started with planning your ultimate two-week itinerary! Since you're in Sudan, I would suggest starting off by exploring some of the country's best sites. You could start by visiting the ruins of the ancient city of Meroe, which is located in the heart of the Nubian Desert. Here, you'll be able to see over 200 pyramids that date back to the Kingdom of Kush. It's an incredible sight to behold and truly transports you back in time.

After that, you could head to Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan. There's plenty to see and do here, but some of my top recommendations include visiting the National Museum of Sudan, which houses a vast collection of artifacts from ancient civilizations, including statues, pottery, and jewelry. You should also check out the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers, which is an awe-inspiring sight to behold.

Next up, I'd recommend taking a day trip to Jebel Barkal, which is located about 400km north of Khartoum. This mountain was considered sacred by the ancient Egyptians and is home to several temples, tombs, and other important structures. It's a fascinating place to explore and will give you a deeper appreciation for the rich history and culture of this region.

Finally, no trip to Sudan would be complete without a visit to the Red Sea coast. This area is known for its stunning beaches and clear blue waters, making it the perfect place to relax and unwind after a busy two weeks of sightseeing. You could spend a few days lounging on the beach, snorkeling, or even scuba diving to explore the vibrant coral reefs.

Overall, this itinerary combines the best of Sudan's ancient history, vibrant culture, and breathtaking natural beauty. I guarantee that you'll have an unforgettable trip and come away with a newfound appreciation for this incredible country!

Culture

Sudanese culture melds the behaviors, practices, and beliefs of about 578 ethnic groups, communicating in numerous different dialects and languages, in a region microcosmic of Africa, with geographic extremes varying from sandy desert to tropical forest. Recent evidence suggests that while most citizens of the country identify strongly with both Sudan and their religion, Arab and African supranational identities are much more polarising and contested.

Sudan has a rich and unique musical culture that has been through chronic instability and repression during the modern history of Sudan. Beginning with the imposition of strict Salafi interpretation of sharia law in 1983, many of the country's most prominent poets and artists, like Mahjoub Sharif, were imprisoned while others, like Mohammed el Amin (returned to Sudan in the mid-1990s) and Mohammed Wardi (returned to Sudan 2003), fled to Cairo. Traditional music suffered too, with traditional Zār ceremonies being interrupted and drums confiscated.

At the same time European militaries contributed to the development of Sudanese music by introducing new instruments and styles; military bands, especially the Scottish bagpipes, were renowned, and set traditional music to military march music. The march March Shulkawi No 1, is an example, set to the sounds of the Shilluk. Northern Sudan listens to different music than the rest of Sudan. A type of music called Aldlayib uses a musical instrument called the Tambur. The Tambur has five strings, is made from wood and makes music accompanied by the voices of human applause and singing artists.

The cinema of Sudan began with cinematography by the British colonial presence in the early 20th century. After independence in 1956, a vigorous documentary film tradition was established, but financial pressures and serious constraints imposed by the Islamist government led to the decline of filmmaking from the 1990s onwards. Since the 2010s, several initiatives have shown an encouraging revival of filmmaking and public interest in film shows and festivals, albeit limited mainly to Khartoum.

The use of photography in Sudan goes back to the 1880s and the Anglo-Egyptian rule. As in other countries, the growing importance of photography for mass media like newspapers, as well as for amateur photographers led to a wider photographic documentation and use of photographs in Sudan during the 20th century and beyond. In the 21st century, photography in Sudan has undergone important changes, mainly due to digital photography and distribution through social media and the internet.

Most Sudanese wear either traditional or western attire. A traditional garb widely worn by Sudanese men is the jalabiya, which is a loose-fitting, long-sleeved, collarless ankle-length garment also common to Egypt. The jalabiya is often accompanied by a large turban and a scarf, and the garment may be white, colored, striped, and made of fabric varying in thickness, depending on the season of the year and personal preferences.

The most common dress for Sudanese women is the thobe or thawb, pronounced tobe in Sudanese dialect. The thobe is a white or colorful long, one piece cloth that women wrap around their inner garments, usually covering their head and hair.

Due to a 1991 penal code (Public Order Law), women were not allowed to wear trousers in public, because it was interpreted as an "obscene outfit." The punishment for wearing trousers could be up to 40 lashes, but after being found guilty in 2009, one woman was fined the equivalent of 200 U.S. dollars instead.

Like in many countries, football is the most popular sport also in Sudan. The Sudan Football Association was founded in 1936 and thus it became one of the oldest football associations to exist in Africa. However, before the foundation of the Football Association, Sudan had started experiencing football brought to the country by the British colonizers since early 20th century via Egypt. Other Sudanese clubs founded at that time include Al-Hilal Omdurman, Al-Merrikh, which led to popularization of football in the country. The Khartoum League became the first national league to be played in Sudan, laying ground for the future development of Sudanese football.

Since September 2019, there has been an official national league for women's football clubs that started on the basis of informal women's clubs since the beginning of the 2000s. In 2021, the Sudan women's national football team participated for the first time in the Arab Women's Cup, held in Cairo, Egypt.

Sudan's national beach volleyball team competed at the 2018–2020 CAVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cup in both the women's and the men's section. In June 2022, Patricia Seif El Din El Haj, the first Sudanese woman wrestler to participate in an African championship, was photographed by Reuters photographer Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah, as she got ready to travel to Nigeria to prepare for the 2024 Summer Olympic games.

Religion

At the 2011 division which split off South Sudan, over 97% of the population in the remaining Sudan adheres to Islam. Most Muslims are divided between two groups: Sufi and Salafi Muslims. Two popular divisions of Sufism, the Ansar and the Khatmia, are associated with the opposition Umma and Democratic Unionist parties, respectively. Only the Darfur region has traditionally been bereft of the Sufi brotherhoods common in the rest of the country.

Long-established groups of Coptic Orthodox Christians and Greek Orthodox Christians exist in Khartoum and other northern cities. Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox communities also exist in Khartoum and eastern Sudan, largely made up of refugees and migrants from the past few decades. The Armenian Apostolic Church also has a presence serving the Sudanese-Armenians. The Sudan Evangelical Presbyterian Church also has membership.

Religious identity plays a role in the country's political divisions. Northern and western Muslims have dominated the country's political and economic system since independence. The NCP draws much of its support from Islamists, Salafis/Wahhabis and other conservative Arab-Muslims in the north. The Umma Party has traditionally attracted Arab followers of the Ansar sect of Sufism as well as non-Arab Muslims from Darfur and Kordofan. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) includes both Arab and non-Arab Muslims in the north and east, especially those in the Khatmia Sufi sect.

Demographics

In Sudan's 2008 census, the population of northern, western and eastern Sudan was recorded to be over 30 million. This puts present estimates of the population of Sudan after the secession of South Sudan at a little over 30 million people. This is a significant increase over the past two decades, as the 1983 census put the total population of Sudan, including present-day South Sudan, at 21.6 million. The population of Greater Khartoum (including Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum North) is growing rapidly and was recorded to be 5.2 million.

Aside from being a refugee-generating country, Sudan also hosts a large population of refugees from other countries. According to UNHCR statistics, more than 1.1 million refugees and asylum seekers lived in Sudan in August 2019. The majority of this population came from South Sudan (858,607 people), Eritrea (123,413), Syria (93,502), Ethiopia (14,201), the Central African Republic (11,713) and Chad (3,100). Apart from these, the UNHCR report 1,864,195 Internally displaced persons (IDP's). Sudan is a party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.



The Arab population is estimated at 70% of the national total. They are almost entirely Muslims and speak predominantly Sudanese Arabic. Other ethnicities include Beja, Fur, Nubians, Armenians and Copts.

Non-Arab groups are often ethnically, linguistically and to varying degrees culturally distinct. These include the Beja (over 2 million), Fur (over 1 million), Nuba (approx. 1 million), Moro, Masalit, Bornu, Tama, Fulani, Hausa, Songhay, Nubians, Berta, Zaghawa, Nyimang, Ingessana, Daju, Koalib, Gumuz, Midob and Tagale. Hausa is used as a trade language.[where?] There is also a small, but prominent Greek community.

Some Arab tribes speak other regional forms of Arabic, such as the Awadia and Fadnia tribes and Bani Arak tribes, who speak Najdi Arabic; and the Beni Ḥassān, Al-Ashraf, Kawhla and Rashaida who speak Hejazi Arabic. A few Arab Bedouin of the northern Rizeigat speak Sudanese Arabic and share the same culture as the Sudanese Arabs. Some Baggara and Tunjur speak Chadian Arabic.

Sudanese Arabs of northern and eastern Sudan claim to descend primarily from migrants from the Arabian Peninsula and intermarriages with the indigenous populations of Sudan. The Nubian people share a common history with Nubians in southern Egypt. The vast majority of Arab tribes in Sudan migrated into Sudan in the 12th century, intermarried with the indigenous Nubian and other African populations and gradually introduced Islam. Additionally, a few pre-Islamic Arabic tribes existed in Sudan from earlier migrations into the region from western Arabia.

In several studies on the Arabization of Sudanese people, historians have discussed the meaning of Arab versus non-Arab cultural identities. For example, historian Elena Vezzadini argues that the ethnic character of different Sudanese groups depends on the way this part of Sudanese history is interpreted and that there are no clear historical arguments for this distinction. In short, she states that "Arab migrants were absorbed into local structures, that they became “Sudanized" and that "In a way, a group became Arab when it started to claim that it was."

In an article on the genealogy of different Sudanese ethnic groups, French archaeologist and linguist Claude Rilly argues that most Sudanese Arabs who claim Arab descent based on an important male ancestor ignore the fact that their DNA is largely made up of generations of African or African-Arab wives and their children, which means that these claims are rather more founded on oral traditions than on biological facts.



Approximately 70 languages are native to Sudan. Sudan has multiple regional sign languages, which are not mutually intelligible. A 2009 proposal for a unified Sudanese Sign Language had been worked out.

Prior to 2005, Arabic was the nation's sole official language. In the 2005 constitution, Sudan's official languages became Arabic and English. The literacy rate is 70.2% of total population, male: 79.6%, female: 60.8%.

At the 2011 division which split off South Sudan, over 97% of the population in the remaining Sudan adheres to Islam. Most Muslims are divided between two groups: Sufi and Salafi Muslims. Two popular divisions of Sufism, the Ansar and the Khatmia, are associated with the opposition Umma and Democratic Unionist parties, respectively. Only the Darfur region has traditionally been bereft of the Sufi brotherhoods common in the rest of the country.

Long-established groups of Coptic Orthodox Christians and Greek Orthodox Christians exist in Khartoum and other northern cities. Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox communities also exist in Khartoum and eastern Sudan, largely made up of refugees and migrants from the past few decades. The Armenian Apostolic Church also has a presence serving the Sudanese-Armenians. The Sudan Evangelical Presbyterian Church also has membership.

Religious identity plays a role in the country's political divisions. Northern and western Muslims have dominated the country's political and economic system since independence. The NCP draws much of its support from Islamists, Salafis/Wahhabis and other conservative Arab-Muslims in the north. The Umma Party has traditionally attracted Arab followers of the Ansar sect of Sufism as well as non-Arab Muslims from Darfur and Kordofan. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) includes both Arab and non-Arab Muslims in the north and east, especially those in the Khatmia Sufi sect.

Sudan has a life expectancy of 65.1 years according to the latest data for the year 2019 from macrotrends.net Infant mortality in 2016 was 44.8 per 1,000.

UNICEF estimates that 87% of Sudanese females between the ages of 15 to 49 have had female genital mutilation performed on them.

Education in Sudan is free and compulsory for children aged 6 to 13 years, although more than 40% of children do not go to schools due to the economic situation. Environmental and social factors also increase the difficulty of getting to school, especially for girls. Primary education consists of eight years, followed by three years of secondary education. The former educational ladder 6 + 3 + 3 was changed in 1990. The primary language at all levels is Arabic. Schools are concentrated in urban areas; many in the west have been damaged or destroyed by years of civil war. In 2001 the World Bank estimated that primary enrollment was 46 percent of eligible pupils and 21 percent of secondary students. Enrollment varies widely, falling below 20 percent in some provinces. The literacy rate is 70.2% of total population, male: 79.6%, female: 60.8%.

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