Sennar ( ') is a city on the

Blue Nile The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major Tributary, tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the wa ...

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

and possibly the capital of the state of Sennar. For several centuries it was the capital of the Funj

Kingdom of Sennar The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar (after its capital Sennar) or Blue Sultanate (due to the traditional Sudanese convention of referring to black people as blue) (), was a monarchy in what is now Sudan, northwester ...

and until at least 2011, Sennar was the capital of Sennar State.

History

The area was under Kushite & Meroitic rule from 750 BC to around 350 AD. The area came under Alwan rule, after which the Alwans were overthrown by the Funj who made Sennar their capital.

Overview

The French traveler Charles-Jacques Poncet, who visited Sennar near the end of the 17th century, estimated the town had a population of 100,000 inhabitants. However, when the Dutch explorer Juan Maria Schuver travelled through the town in April 1881, he doubted it had "anything like 100,000 inhabitants, when Khartoum, the centre and capital of a tenfold larger country is not able to muster more than a quarter of that number, if we exclude the garrison." Wendy James, Gerd Baumann, and Douglas H. Johnson, ''Juan Maria Schuver's Travels in North East Africa, 1880-1883'' (London: Hakluyt Society, 1996), p. 13 He observed that Sennar had declined as trade had over the years shifted to Karkoj, "much more advantageously situated as the terminus of regular navigation, as the natural outlet of the Takruri country between

Kassala Kassala (, ) is the capital of the state of Kassala (state), Kassala in eastern Sudan. In 2003 its population was recorded to be 530,950. Built on the banks of the Mareb River, Gash River, it is a market city and is famous for its fruit gardens. ...

and Galabat." The modern town lies SSE of the ruins of the ancient capital of the Funj Kingdom, southeast of

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum is the capital city of Sudan as well as Khartoum State. With an estimated population of 7.1 million people, Greater Khartoum is the largest urban area in Sudan. Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flo ...

, the Capital of

. The city is home to Sinnar University, established in 1977. In 2011, the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

still presented maps indicating that Sennar was the capital of Sennar state, but more recent works indicate that the capital is at Sinja.

Climate

Despite receiving over of rainfall per year, the extreme heat and high evaporation means Sennar still has a borderline hot arid climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''BWh'') a little below a

hot semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...

(''BSh'').

Demographics

Notable people

* Nasra bint ʿAdlan, Sudanese royalty

References

External links

{{Authority control Populated places in Sennar State State capitals in Sudan