Karima
Coordinates: 18 ° 34 ' N , 31 ° 52' E
Karima ( Arabic كريمة Kurima ; rarely Kurimah , Kareima , Kuraymah or Kuraima ) is a small town in northern Sudan in the state of Ash-Shamaliyya . The city's landmark, Mount Barkal , can be seen from afar on the southern outskirts.
location
Karima is located in the part of Sudan that belongs to Nubia , around 350 km from Khartoum , on the right, western bank of the Nile , which here flows in an arc in a southerly direction. On the other side of the river is the smaller twin town of Merowe .
The market town is the largest settlement about halfway between Atbara on the north-facing desert route in the east, and Dongola , which is in the northwest on the parallel road connection along the Nile. About 30 kilometers upstream is the Merowe Dam , whose flooding, which ended in early 2009, created the largest reservoir in Sudan in the area of the 4th Nile Cataract. Karima is located in a desert area known as the Nubian Desert in the north and Bayuda in the east . The narrow strip of irrigated agricultural land along the banks of the Nile is only a few hundred meters wide in the city area, outside the city this green area is no more than one kilometer wide.
population
Karima has 13,981 inhabitants (2012 calculation). The population of the area is made up of Nubians and Arab ethnic groups such as the Sheygya (Shaqiya).
Population development:
| year | Residents |
|---|---|
| 1973 (census) | 7.118 |
| 1983 (census) | 10,459 |
| 2012 (calculation) | 13,981 |
Attractions
Karima is a new city foundation in the area of the ancient city of Napata . To this belonged since the time of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III. in the 15th century BC Barkal worshiped the temple area on the east side of this striking table mountain and the ancient cemetery on the west side as the seat of the god Amun . The first capital of the Kushitic empire also comprised Sanam , located about seven kilometers south on the outskirts of today's Merowe , the pyramid field of Nuri , which can be reached by road via Merowe, and the pyramids of al- about 12 kilometers southwest of Karima on the same side of the Nile. Kurru . They can be reached from the Nile bridge on a sandy track near the shore.
Infrastructure
In January 2008, the bridge over the Nile to Merowe, five kilometers south of the city and financed with Chinese money, was opened to traffic. There are continuously paved road connections to Khartoum, across the Bayuda Desert to Atbara and along the Nile to the north to Dongola. Shipping to the south was practically impossible because of the cataracts, and wooden steamers that went downstream until the 1990s are now wrecked on the bank. In the early 1960s, a 250-kilometer branch line of the railway from Abu Hamad (on the main line between Atbara and Wadi Halfa ) to Karima was built. This rail connection is also no longer in operation.
Cityscape and economy
The rail connection should serve the industrialization of Karima. In 1963, for example, a canning factory was set up with the aim of processing tomatoes grown in the region into tomato paste. When the farmers did not supply the factory with enough tomatoes because the proceeds were too low, tomato paste was imported from abroad and in Karima it was transferred from large to small cans. That factory has disappeared. The workshop of the ship repair yard is also no longer needed.
Karima is a typical northern Sudanese desert town with spacious, square-plan areas in which one-story buildings predominate. The market is of regional importance. The most important agricultural export products are the soft and dried fruits of the date palms , which, like vegetables (tomatoes, eggplants), cereals and all year round fodder clover for animals, receive water via canals that are supplied by diesel pumps from the Nile. Date palms near rivers should be watered regularly for the first two years. Since the closure of the Merowe Dam, the water level of the Nile has decreased and the pumps require longer suction hoses.
sons and daughters of the town
- Hussein Salim , Sudanese painter
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. World Gazetteer
- ^ Bernhard Streck: Sudan. Stone graves and living cultures on the Nile. DuMont, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-7701-1232-6 , p. 22.
