The Bayuda Desert, located at , is in the eastern region of the

Sahara Desert The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

, spanning approximately 100,000 km² of northeast

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

north of

Omdurman Omdurman () is a major city in Sudan. It is the second most populous city in the country, located in the State of Khartoum. Omdurman lies on the west bank of the River Nile, opposite and northwest of the capital city of Khartoum. The city acts ...

and south of Korti, embraced by the great bend of the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

in the north, east, and south and limited by the Wadi Muqaddam in the west. The north-to-south-aligned Wadi Abu Dom divides the Bayuda Desert into the eastern Bayuda Volcanic Field and the western

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colou ...

-colored sand-sheets scattered with rocky outcrop. Gold mining occurs today from October to March, as laborers work auriferous

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

found in

wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

s and shallow mines. These workings are usually in areas previously worked during the

New Kingdom of Egypt The New Kingdom, also called the Egyptian Empire, refers to ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC. This period of History of ancient Egypt, ancient Egyptian history covers the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth, ...

and the Early Arab Period. In July 2020, it was found that gold hunters had used heavy machinery at the Jabal Maragha archaeological site, destroying it by digging a huge trench. The gold diggers were arrested and their equipment seized, but they were later released without charges.

The Bayuda Desert route

Throughout the Meroitic civilization, the Bayuda Desert became the lifeline connecting the northern and southern districts of the

Kingdom of Kush The Kingdom of Kush (; Egyptian language, Egyptian: 𓎡𓄿𓈙𓈉 ''kꜣš'', Akkadian language, Assyrian: ''Kûsi'', in LXX Χους or Αἰθιοπία; ''Ecōš''; ''Kūš''), also known as the Kushite Empire, or simply Kush, was an an ...

, with

Napata Napata
(2020). (Old Egyptian ''Npt'', ''Npy''; Meroitic language, Meroitic ''Napa''; and Ναπάται) was a city of ...

and Meroe as the termini. The king Nastasen Stela provides testament of the existence and use of this route, describing his progress across the desert from Meroe to Napata for his coronation.Intisar Soghayroun, Elzein Soghayroun: Trade and Wadi Systems in Muslim Sudan, Kampala 2010

The Mahdist War

The Bayuda Desert was crossed by the Desert Column of the Gordon Relief Expedition in January 1885 in a failed attempt to relieve the

Siege of Khartoum The siege of Khartoum (also known as the battle of Khartoum or fall of Khartoum) took place from 13 March 1884 to 26 January 1885. Mahdist State, Sudanese Mahdist forces captured the city of Khartoum, Sudan, from its Khedivate of Egypt, Egypti ...

. The Desert Column was led mainly by Major General Sir Herbert Stewart, but after he was mortally wounded, command passed to Brigadier General Charles Wilson, the column's intelligence officer. The Expedition saw the

Battle of Abu Klea The Battle of Abu Klea, also known as the Battle of Abu Tulayh, took place between 16 and 18 January 1885, at Abu Klea, Sudan, between the British Desert Column and Muhammad Ahmad, Mahdist forces encamped near Abu Klea. The Desert Column, a for ...

and the Battle Abu Kru.

References

External links

{{Authority control Deserts of Sudan