Travel to Africa's third largest country (the size of Alaska plus West Virginia and Maryland, and more than seven times the size of the United Kingdom) is currently impossible for ordinary visitors. Since April 2023 this country of nearly 52 million has been engulfed in a brutal civil war that has created what many humanitarian agencies call the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, displacing millions and collapsing much of the country’s infrastructure. Yet Sudan remains one of the most historically and culturally extraordinary countries in Africa—home to ancient pyramids, lost kingdoms, and vast desert landscapes that, if peace returns, could make it one of the continent’s most compelling travel destinations.
From Ancient Kingdoms to Modern Conflict
Sudan’s story stretches back thousands of years. In antiquity, the region was the heartland of the Kingdom of Kush, a powerful civilization that rivaled ancient Egypt and at times even ruled it. Nubian kings built temples and pyramids across the Nile Valley, many of which still stand today in remote desert landscapes.
After centuries of shifting empires—including Christian Nubian kingdoms and later Islamic sultanates—Sudan fell under Ottoman-Egyptian rule in the 19th century, followed by the famous Mahdist uprising of the 1880s. In 1899 the territory became the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, effectively a British-administered colony.
Sudan gained independence in 1956, but the modern state struggled with internal divisions, long-running civil wars, and military rule. In 2011 the country split, with the southern provinces becoming the independent nation of South Sudan. The latest and most devastating conflict erupted in April 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”). The two factions had been uneasy allies after a 2021 military coup but fell out over how and when the RSF should be integrated into the national army. The dispute rapidly escalated into nationwide war.
Today, much of the country—including the capital Khartoum—has been devastated by urban fighting, bombardment, and atrocities. Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced.
How Safe Is Sudan Now?
In practical terms, it isn't, for travel anywhere in the country. Governments worldwide advise their citizens to leave immediately and warn that security conditions are unpredictable. The conflict has spread across multiple regions, roads are often blocked by checkpoints, and infrastructure—from hospitals to airports—has been heavily damaged.
One of the few places that initially avoided large-scale fighting was Port Sudan, on the Red Sea. As Khartoum descended into war, the army-aligned government effectively relocated many ministries and military headquarters there. But even Port Sudan has not remained immune. In 2025 the RSF launched drone attacks on key infrastructure including the airport, port facilities, and fuel depots—demonstrating that no area is entirely secure.
Are Any Tour Operators Still Running Trips?
Not only has independent travel been impossible for some time, but almost all international travel companies that once brough tourists here have suspended operations. One exception is the niche adventure operator Young Pioneer Tours, which has advertised a short trip to Port Sudan and nearby historic sites such as the ruins of Suakin Island (more about that below). These tours are extremely limited and marketed primarily to highly experienced travelers comfortable visiting unstable destinations. Beyond this, only a handful of local Sudanese guides or small agencies appear to be offering limited services, and even those are constrained by the security situation. In practical terms, Sudan’s tourism industry is effectively dormant until peace returns.
Khartoum and the Confluence of the Nile
Before the current war, Khartoum was a sprawling desert capital of roughly 6–7 million people in its greater metropolitan area (including Khartoum North and Omdurman), making it one of the largest cities in northeast Africa. Founded by Ottoman ruler Muhammad Ali Pasha in 1821 at the dramatic meeting point of the Blue Nile and White Nile, the city had a distinctive geographic setting: wide rivers, sandy plains, and avenues lined with acacia trees, with neighborhoods spreading out across a triangular wedge of land between the two rivers. The climate is intensely hot and dry for much of the year, giving Khartoum a sun-bleached, desert character softened by riverside greenery and palm-lined boulevards.
In atmosphere, Khartoum historically felt both African and Middle Eastern, reflecting the country´s cultural crossroads between the Arab world and sub-Saharan Africa. The city’s skyline was relatively low-rise compared with many African capitals, though a handful of modern towers—including the striking, sail-shaped, 18-year-old Corinthia Hotel (seen above) on the Nile—rose above older districts of markets, mosques, and government buildings. Life revolved around bustling souks, riverside promenades, and university campuses, particularly around the University of Khartoum, one of the country’s leading intellectual centers.
One of the city´s most important cultural institutions was the Sudan National Museum, which housed an extraordinary collection of artifacts from Nubian and Kushite civilization. Among its most remarkable features were entire temple structures relocated from sites threatened by flooding after the construction of Egypt’s Aswan High Dam in the 1960s. These sandstone temples were reassembled in the museum gardens, giving visitors a rare chance to walk through ancient Nubian architecture outside its original setting.
Khartoum also preserved landmarks associated with the colonial era, including the Presidential Palace, which occupies the site of the former governor-general’s residence where British officer Charles Gordon was killed during the siege of Khartoum in 1885. Nearby stood government ministries and historic administrative buildings dating from the Anglo-Egyptian period.
Across the river in Omdurman, long regarded as the cultural heart of Sudan, travelers could explore the vast Omdurman Souq, one of the largest markets in the region, and witness the famous Friday afternoon Sufi ceremonies at the Hamed el-Nil Mosque, where whirling dervishes in colorful robes perform rhythmic rituals accompanied by drums and chanting. Another historically significant site here was the Khalifa House Museum, in a building which was once the residence of the Mahdist leader’s successor after the 19th-century uprising against Egyptian and British rule. The museum preserves artifacts from the Mahdist period and the dramatic events surrounding the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, when British forces defeated the Mahdist state.
Khartoum once offered visitors a vivid introduction to Sudan’s layered history—from ancient Nubia and the Mahdist revolution to colonial rule and modern nationhood. Its museums, markets, and riverfront setting made it the natural gateway to the rest of the country. Sadly, much of the city has since been heavily damaged during the ongoing war, leaving its future as a cultural capital uncertain until stability returns.
Meroë and the Nubian Pyramids
In the desert about 2½ to three hours´s drive north of Khartoum stands one of the world’s most extraordinary archaeological landscapes: the pyramids of Meroë, the royal cemetery of the Kushite capital that flourished from roughly the 3rd century BCE to the 4th century CE. More than 200 pyramids survive here, built for kings, queens, and nobles of the Kingdom of Kush. Unlike the massive pyramids of Egypt, these are narrower and steeper, often about 20 to 100 feet (6–30 meters) tall, with small funerary chapels attached to their eastern sides.
Most pyramids at Meroë cannot be entered. Many were damaged or looted in antiquity and later by treasure hunters. As a result, the burial chambers—located underground beneath the structures—are generally sealed or inaccessible to visitors. What travelers typically explore are the exterior pyramid fields and the decorated chapel walls, where relief carvings depict Nubian rulers, gods, and scenes from funerary rituals.
A small site museum and visitor center near the entrance provides context about the Kushite civilization and displays artifacts found in the area. A paved access road connects the site to the Nile Valley highway, and before the war there were basic services including a ticket office, parking area, and occasional guides.
Accommodation nearby was sparse but improving. The most notable option was the Meroë Tented Camp, a boutique desert lodge designed to evoke the style of 19th-century archaeological expeditions, with canvas tents facing the pyramids and sunset views over the dunes. Aside from this camp and a few modest guesthouses in nearby villages, infrastructure remained minimal—part of what made visiting the site so memorable.
For travelers who managed to reach it before the conflict, Meroë offered something increasingly rare in the world’s great archaeological sites: the chance to wander among dozens of ancient pyramids in near solitude, surrounded by wind-blown desert and vast silence.
Jebel Barkal and the Kingdom of Kush
Near the town of Karima, a five-to-six-hour drive from Khartoum along the Nile, this sandstone outcrop rises dramatically from the desert. In antiquity this area formed the sacred center of the Napatan phase of the Kingdom of Kush (8th–4th centuries BCE). The isolated butte, about 100 meters high, was believed to be the dwelling place of the god Amun, making it one of the most important religious landscapes in ancient Nubia.
At the mountain’s base stand the remains of the Temple of Amun, first built during Egypt’s New Kingdom (13th century BCE) and later expanded by Kushite rulers who eventually conquered Egypt as the 25th Dynasty. Visitors can still walk among column bases, gateways, and relief carvings depicting pharaohs and Nubian kings making offerings to Amun.
The surrounding area contains several additional sites, including small temples and nearby pyramid fields such as Nuri and El-Kurru, where early Kushite kings and queens were buried. Together these monuments form part of the UNESCO-listed Archaeological Sites of the Napatan Region.
Visitor infrastructure has historically been limited. There is no major museum on site (some artifacts from the region are displayed in Khartoum´s Sudan National Museum). Before the war, travelers typically based themselves in Karima, where a few modest guesthouses and small lodges served visitors exploring one of the Nile Valley’s most atmospheric archaeological landscapes.
Port Sudan and the Red Sea Coast
Sudan’s principal seaport (pop. 500,000) was built by the British in 1905 to replace the aging harbor on Suakin Island (more about that below). It has a relatively modern, early-20th-century layout with wide streets, port installations, and neighborhoods shaped by Red Sea trade. In recent years, as war has engulfed Khartoum, Port Sudan has also been functioning as a temporary administrative center for the national government. For travelers it has traditionally served as the country’s gateway to the Red Sea, with a waterfront lined by fish markets, cafés, and harbor promenades that offer glimpses of everyday coastal life.
Roughly an hour south of here, Suakin Island (above), connected to the mainland by a short causeway, was an important Red Sea trading port for centuries and flourished particularly under Ottoman Turkish rule from the 16th through 19th centuries. Its distinctive houses, mosques, and merchant buildings were constructed from coral blocks quarried from nearby reefs, giving the island a unique architectural character. The port was also a major transit point for African pilgrims traveling to Mecca. When the British opened Port Sudan in 1905, maritime trade shifted to there and Suakin declined rapidly, leaving behind a haunting landscape of crumbling coral-stone ruins, arched courtyards, and partially collapsed mosques.
Beyond the historical sites, this Red Sea coastline is one of the least explored diving regions on Earth. The waters are exceptionally clear and support extensive coral reefs and abundant marine life including reef sharks, turtles, and large schools of tropical fish. Offshore areas such as Sanganeb Atoll Marine National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage reef system, are considered among the most pristine in the Red Sea basin. Before the current conflict, Port Sudan functioned as the main base for divers seeking dramatic reefs and historic shipwrecks in a marine environment still largely untouched by mass tourism.
The Bayuda Desert, its Nubian Villages, and Another Astonishing Ancient Civilization
Up in the far north between the Nile and the Red Sea - a seven-to -ten-hour drive from Khartoum and eight to ten from Port Sudan - stretches a vast landscape of desert plains, dunes, and volcanic hills, crossed for centuries by caravan routes linking the Nile Valley with the Red Sea ports. Before the current conflict, travelers came to explore the Nile corridor north of the city of Dongola, where Nubian villages with brightly painted houses line the riverbanks and date palms shade narrow strips of farmland.
One small riverside settlement along this stretch is Abri, which serves as a regional market center for surrounding Nubian villages. Its mud-brick homes, palm groves, and riverfront setting offer a glimpse of traditional life in a region where agriculture still depends on the annual rhythms of the Nile.
Nearby is another similar town, Kerma, whose main distinction is actually what lies just outside it: one of Sudan´s most important archaeological sites, that of ancient Kerma, the capital of a powerful kingdom that flourished from about 2500 to 1500 BCE, making it one of Africa’s earliest urban civilizations. The city was dominated by massive mud-brick temple structures known as deffufas, including the imposing Western Deffufa (above), which rises more than 60 feet above the surrounding plain. Today visitors can explore the ruins of this ancient capital and its nearby royal cemeteries, then continue to the 18-year-old Kerma Museum, displaying pottery, jewelry, statues, and other artifacts from the ancient kingdom. Together with the surrounding Nubian villages, this site provides a rare window into both Nubia’s deep past and the enduring traditions of the Nile Valley.
Sudan today is experiencing one of the darkest chapters in its history. The violence has shattered cities, displaced millions, and halted nearly all international travel. Yet beneath the devastation lies a country of immense historical and cultural richness—from Nubian pyramids and sacred mountains to vibrant traditions and vast desert landscapes. If peace eventually returns, this country could become one of the most extraordinary destinations in Africa—a place where travelers can encounter some of the world’s greatest ancient civilizations in near solitude. For now, however, it remains a place to watch from afar, hoping for stability and recovery.
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