City (pop., 1993: 924,505), capital of The Sudan.
Located just south of the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers, it was originally an Egyptian army camp (1821). The Mahdists besieged and destroyed the town in 1885, killing Charles George Gordon , the British governor-general. Reoccupied by the British in 1898, it served as the seat of the Anglo-Egyptian government until 1956, when it became the capital of the independent republic of The Sudan. A major trade and communications centre, it is the seat of several universities.