The architecture of Sudan mirrors the geographical, ethnic and cultural diversity of the country and its historical periods. The lifestyles and material culture expressed in human settlements, their architecture and economic activities have been shaped by different regional and environmental conditions. In its long documented history, Sudan has been a land of changing and diverse forms of human civilization with important influences from foreign cultures.In the article on the cultural life in Sudan, the Encyclopædia Britannica writes: "The key to an understanding of contemporary Sudanese culture is diversity. Each major ethnic group and historical region has its own special forms of cultural expression. (...) Because of Sudan's great cultural diversity, it is difficult to classify the traditional cultures of the various peoples. Sudan's traditional societies have diverse linguistic, ethnic, social, cultural, and religious characteristics. And, although improved communications, increased social and economic mobility, and the spread of a money economy have led to a general loosening of the social ties, customs, relationships, and modes of organization in traditional cultures, much from the past still remains intact." Source:
The earliest known architectural structures and urbanization go back to the eighth millennium BCE. Cultural relations with Sudan's northern neighbour of Ancient Egypt, with which it shared long historical periods of mutual influence, brought about both Egyptian as well as distinctly Nubian settlements with temples and pyramids that emerged in the Kingdom of Kush and its last capital of Meroë.
From around 500 CE until circa 1500 CE, Christian kingdoms were thriving in Upper Nubia and southwards along the Nile. They built important cities, known by their flourishing culture, with monasteries, palaces and cities with fortifications and cathedrals, showing influences of Coptic and Byzantine cultures from Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean.
Following the growing influence of Arab Muslim migrants from the 7th century onwards, the Christian kingdom of Makuria established the Baqt, a treaty with the Muslim rulers of Egypt allowing Muslims to freely trade and travel. This bought about the first establishment of mosques and cemeteries in Upper Nubia, documented from 1317 CE onwards.Werner, Roland (2013). Das Christentum in Nubien: Geschichte und Gestalt einer afrikanischen Kirche. p. 71, note 44. From about 1500 CE and up to the early 19th century, the Muslim Sultanates of the Funji and of Darfur established new kingdoms in the southern and western parts of Sudan. Prosperous cities such as Sennar or Al Fashir had buildings for administration and personal housing, agriculture and crafts, worship and trade, - including the slave trade.
Located on the southern bank of the Blue Nile, the city of Khartoum developed as the centre of the Turkish-Egyptian state, but was largely destroyed by the Mahdi's followers in 1885, who established their capital in Omdurman across the White Nile. In the early 1900s, Khartoum, was rebuilt by the British administration under Lord Kitchener, following standards of a modern European city. In 2021, greater Khartoum is a metropolis with an estimated population of almost six million people, consisting of Khartoum proper, linked by bridges across the Blue and White Nile with the cities of Khartoum North and Omdurman to the West.
The rural landscape of Sudan is still largely characterized by traditional African architecture, but also has undergone important changes in the development of settlements, infrastructure and corresponding architecture during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Early historical periods
Prehistory By the eighth millennium BCE, people of a Neolithic culture had settled into a sedentary way of life in the Nile valley in fortified mud-brick villages, where they supplemented hunting and fishing on the Nile with grain harvesting and cattle herding."Early History", Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Sudan A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991.
In eastern Sudan, the Butana Group appeared around 4000 BCE. Not much is known about settlement patterns, but some sites are almost 10 hectare large, indicating longer occupations. The people of the Butana Group lived in small, round huts. Not many cemeteries are known, but people were most often buried in a contracted position.Manzo: Eastern Sudan in its Setting, The archaeology of a region far from the Nile Valley, 25
Settlements of Ancient Egypt in Nubia The city of Buhen was an ancient Egyptian settlement near today's city of Wadi Halfa in Sudan's Northern State. It is known for its large fortress, probably constructed during the rule of Senusret III around 1860 BCE (12th Dynasty). Its fortifications included a moat three meters deep, drawbridges, bastions, buttresses, ramparts, battlements, loopholes, and a catapult. The outer wall included an area between the two walls pierced with a double row of arrow loops, allowing both standing and kneeling archers to fire at the same time. In 1962, an archaeological expedition of Buhen revealed elements like slags from the smelting process that belonged to an ancient copper factory. Buhen also had a temple of Horus, built by Hatshepsut. Walls of this temple, along with architectural elements from the Semna cataract and other locations were re-erected in the museum garden of the National Museum of Sudan prior to the flooding of Lake Nasser.Friedrich Hinkel, "Dismantling and removal of endangered monuments in Sudanese Nubia" in: Kush V Journal of the Sudan Antiquity Service, 1965
The Kingdom of Kush
During the Kingdom of Kush (about 950 BCE – CE 350), when the monarchs of Kush ruled their northern neighbour Egypt as pharaos for over a century and a strong Egyptian influence was present in Nubian culture, important cities with temples were built, such as the city of Naqa with its temples dedicated to ancient deities Amun and Apedemak. Another building in the same place is a small temple called The Roman Kiosk with indigenous Nubian as well as Hellenistic elements.
Further examples of ancient Nubian architecture are rock-cut temples, big mudbrick buildings with temples called deffufa, graves with stoned walls or dwellings made of mudbricks, wood and stone floors, palaces and well laid-out roads.Bianchi, Robert Steven. Daily Life of the Nubians. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004, pp. 227, Archaeological campaigns have brought to light the remnants of Nubian cities, such as the Royal City of Meroë, where the so-called 'Roman baths', were characterised as "an outstanding example of cultural transfer between the African kingdom and the Greco-Roman culture of the Mediterranean." Among Sudan's World Heritage Sites, the Nubian pyramids in Meroë are probably the best known architectural remnants of this historical period.
Medieval Nubia In medieval Nubia (c. 500–1500 CE), the inhabitants of the Christian kingdoms Makuria, Nobadia, and Alodia built distinct forms of architecture in their cities, such as the Faras Cathedral with elaborate friezes and wall paintings, the Great Monastery of St Anthony or the Throne Hall of the Makurian kings, a massive defence-like building, in Old Dongola. Most of these buildings were excavated and documented, before they were submerged in the waters of Lake Nasser in the 1960s and 70s.
Arrival of Islam and Arabization
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Islamic kingdoms were established in the southern and western parts of Sudan – the Funj Sultanate with its capital in Sennar and the Sultanate of Darfur with Al-Fashir. The changes in religion and society at large marked a long period of gradual Islamization and Arabization in Sudan. These sultanates and their societies existed until the Sudan was conquered through the Ottoman Egyptian invasion in 1820, and, in the case of Darfur, even until 1916.Alan Moorehead, The Blue Nile, revised edition. (1972). New York: Harper and Row, p. 215
Major cultural changes of this period were the adoption by growing numbers of people of the Islamic religion and the use of the Arabic language, with the building of mosques and Islamic schools as elements of social life. Other cultural developments were reported by foreign visitors such as Frédéric CailliaudPhilippe Mainterot, "La redécouverte des collections de Frédéric Cailliaud : contribution à l'histoire de l'égyptologie", Histoire de l'Art, no 62, mai 2008 (). and included the architecture of towns and buildings.
During the Turkish-Egyptian rule (1821–1885), Turks, Egyptians, British and other foreign inhabitants of Khartoum expanded the city from a military encampment to a regional centre with hundreds of brick-built houses, official buildings like the first governor's palace, the mudiriya (government offices) and several foreign consulates."Originally, Khartoum served as an outpost for the Egyptian Army, but the settlement quickly grew into a regional centre of trade. It also became a focal point for the slave trade." Source: Roman Adrian Cybriwsky. (2013) Capital cities around the world: an encyclopedia of geography, history, and culture. ABC-CLIO, USA, p. 139. In 1829, the first mosque was erected in Khartoum under governor-general Ali Khurshid Agha, who also had a dockyard and new military barracks built.
Following the defeat of General Gordon's troops in 1885, the Mahdist state (1885–1899) built important architectural monuments in Omdurman, the country's capital during this period. Today, the reconstructed tomb of Muhammad Ahmad, known as al-Mahdi, the former residence of his successor Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, now the Khalifa House Museum, as well as the Abdul Qayyum Gate and some remnants of the fortifications, known as Al Tabia, bear witness to the Islamic tradition of Omdurman. Other characteristic buildings include mosques and graves of important religious leaders, such as Sheikh Hamed el Nil. Furthermore, Souk Omdurman is an important traditional market.
Traditional architecture Traditional homes and other structures of vernacular architecture in large parts of the country have been built using locally available materials, such as cow dung, mudbricks, stones or trees and other plants. The buildings are often embellished with painted ornaments, reflecting the local culture. This type of rectangular or square house is typically constructed by the future inhabitants themselves, relying on helping hands from the community.
In the southern parts of the country, where there is more rainfall and vegetation than in the North, round huts with thatched conical roofs are widespread. These tukul huts are traditionally made of dried mud, grass, stalks and wooden poles. Also, the various (semi-)nomadic peoples who live in Sudan, such as the Beja, Baggara, Rachaida or others have developed mobile camps and often still today live in tents.In their ethnographical study of the northern Mahria, a tribe of Arab camel nomads in North Darfur, the authors describe the construction, spacial setup and use of tents in camps of this ethnic group belonging to the larger group of Rizeigat nomads. Source: Lang, Hartmut, and Uta Holier. "Arab Camel Nomads in the North West Sudan. The Northern Mahria from a Census Point of View." Anthropos, vol. 91, no. 1/3, 1996, pp. 20–22. Apart from nomads, one has to consider the large numbers of camps for international refugees and Internally displaced persons (IDPs), often living in tents and other transitional shelters. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), by the end of 2014, there were 2.3 million internally displaced people, which represented one of the world's largest internally displaced populations. Source:
Turkish architecture in Suakin