Sudan

Sudan is a very hot country.

In the north, it almost never rains. In the south, there is a rainy season. The Nile brings water through the dry land. Bright coral reefs grow in the Red Sea.

Sudan is a hot country: the central and eastern areas have the highest average temperatures, typically in the mid-30s to low 40s °C. Almost no rain falls in the north, but the south gets about 500 to 750 millimeters a year, mostly in summer. Dust storms are common in the north and center.

All of Sudan's rivers drain toward the Nile. The White Nile flows in from the south, and the Blue Nile comes down from the highlands of Ethiopia, bringing much of the floodwater. In the far west, the volcanic Marrah Mountains rise to about 3,000 meters. On the Red Sea coast, a narrow plain is edged with sand dunes and coral reefs.

The White Nile enters Sudan about 100 km south of Kūstī and flows with an extremely low gradient to Khartoum, where it is joined by the Blue Nile, which rises on the Ethiopian Plateau and contributes much of the floodwater; beyond the confluence the river curves north as the Nile. Much of the country's drainage never reaches it: seasonal watercourses vanish into the plains. The Gezira plain south of Khartoum is deep, uniform clay laid down by the Blue Nile's floods.

The volcanic Marrah Mountains rise from the Darfur Plateau to between about 900 and 3,000 m and form the Nile-Congo watershed; in the northeast the Red Sea Hills overlook a coastal plain 16 to 40 km wide with dunes and coral reefs. The climate follows the north-south swing of the boundary between dry northerly air and moist southerly air, which arrives around May. The center and east have the highest mean annual temperatures, typically in the mid-30s to low 40s °C, and rainfall ranges from almost nothing in the north to 500 to 750 mm in the south.

Lions and leopards live in Sudan.

Crocodiles live there too. So do storks and guinea fowl. In the Red Sea, gentle dugongs and turtles swim near the reefs.

Sudan's plant life changes from north to south as the rain increases: desert, then dry grassland with acacia scrub, then savannas with thorny trees and baobab trees. One acacia, Acacia senegal, gives gum arabic, a natural gum that was long one of Sudan's main exports.

Sudan's wildlife includes lions, leopards and cheetahs, many kinds of antelope, crocodiles, and birds such as bustards, guinea fowl and storks. Dinder National Park in the southeast and Radom National Park in the southwest are UNESCO biosphere reserves. Off the coast, the Sanganeb reef has more than 300 kinds of fish, and Dungonab Bay, farther north, shelters sharks, dolphins, turtles, manta rays and dugongs.

Britannica describes five vegetation belts from north to south, following rainfall: desert, with plants only near watercourses; semidesert grasses and acacia scrub; low-rainfall savanna of grasses, thorny trees and baobabs, dominated by acacias, including Acacia senegal, the source of gum arabic; high-rainfall savanna; and mountain vegetation. Centuries of cultivation, grass fires that may sweep over more than half the country each year, overstocking, erosion and the advance of the desert have removed much natural vegetation. Wildlife includes lions, leopards, cheetahs and many antelope, bustards, guinea fowl, storks and crocodiles; Dinder and Radom national parks are UNESCO biosphere reserves.

UNESCO inscribed Sanganeb Marine National Park and Dungonab Bay-Mukkawar Island Marine National Park in 2016. Sanganeb, 25 km offshore, is the only atoll in the Red Sea, with 13 reef zones and more than 300 fish species; Dungonab Bay, 125 km north of Port Sudan, has coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds and a globally significant population of dugongs, along with sharks, manta rays, dolphins, turtles and migratory birds.

Many different peoples live in Sudan.

Most people speak Arabic. Many people also speak other languages. Some homes are made of sun-dried bricks. Others are round huts with pointed grass roofs.

Sudan is home to many peoples who speak many languages. Arabic is the most widely used language, and Arabic and English are the official working languages. Most people in Sudan are Muslims.

The Nubians live along the Nile in the far north, the Beja in the Red Sea Hills, the Fur near the Marrah Mountains and the Nuba in the Nuba Mountains, each with their own languages. In the north, houses are often built of sun-dried bricks with flat roofs, while farther south many homes are round huts called tukuls, with cone-shaped roofs of grass and millet stalks. Sorghum and millet are the main food crops; other main crops include cotton, peanuts, sesame and gum arabic.

Even after 2011, Sudan's population includes several major ethnic groups and hundreds of subgroups. Most people are Muslims who speak Arabic and identify as Arabs, but they are not one group: they include city dwellers, village farmers and pastoral nomads. Non-Arab Muslim peoples include the Nubians of the far north, the Beja of the Red Sea Hills, who keep their Cushitic Bedawi language, the Fur of the Marrah Mountains and the Zaghawa; the Nuba of the Nuba Mountains speak Hill Nubian languages. Most languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Niger-Congo families, and most Sudanese are multilingual. Arabic and English were made official working languages by the 2005 interim constitution. The majority are Sunni Muslims; Christians and followers of traditional religions are small minorities.

About two-fifths of the population is under 15, about one-tenth is fully nomadic, and about a third was urban when the south seceded in 2011. Sorghum and millet are the main subsistence crops. The Gezira Scheme, begun in 1925 between the Blue and White Niles, covers about 1 million hectares and provides water for more than 100,000 tenant farmers and grows most of the cotton.