Omdurman

Introduction

Omdurman is the second largest city in Sudan and Khartoum State, lying on the western banks of the River Nile, opposite the capital, Khartoum. Omdurman is the national centre of commerce. With Khartoum and Khartoum North or Bahri, it forms the cultural and industrial heart of the nation.

Sights and Activities

The Omdurman souq is said to be one of the largest markets in Africa and you can get handicrafts here. The handicraft street is quite difficult to find - its towards the northern end of the market, near the gold section (not on the western side, as stated in the Bradt guide). The street is actually a covered lane between two buildings with gates at either end. Its not very busy (in comparison with the rest of the market) and they can lock up and go home in the evenings, and sometimes on Fridays also.

Weather

Omdurman features a hot semi-arid climate, with summer months seeing significant precipitation. Khartoum averages a little over 155 millimetres of precipitation per year. Based on annual mean temperatures, Omdurman is one of the hottest major cities in the world. Temperatures may exceed 45 °C in mid-summer. It has dry winters.

Its average annual high temperature is 37.1 °C, with six months of the year seeing an average monthly high temperature of at least 38 °C. Furthermore, throughout the year, none of its monthly average high temperatures falls below 30 °C. Although it's diurnal temperature variation is fair enough temperatures cool off during the night, with Khartoum's lowest average low temperature of the year just above 15 °C. The city literally does not experience seasons, just like most parts of the Arabian peninsula and north-eastern Africa where it's either hot or very hot all year long.

Getting There

By Plane

Khartoum International Airport (KRT) receives international flights, among which are those with Sudan Airways, the national airline of Sudan. It has several flights within the region of North and East Africa, the Middle East and to London. Examples of destinations include Nairobi, Entebbe (Uganda), Dubai, Jeddah and Damascus.

Other airlines serving the airport are KLM to and from Amsterdam and onwards to Addis Ababa, Lufthansa from Frankfurt and airlines like Turkish Airlines, Royal Jordanian and BMI from London as well.

Keep Connected

Internet

Your best bet of internet connections will be in Khartoum, where there are places with wifi.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Sudan's international direct dialling code is 249.

Prepaid mobile phone packages are easily available in Sudan. The two telecommunications companies in Sudan are ZAIN (Tel: +249 91 230000) and MTN (Tel: +249 92-1111111). Zain has a cheaper prepaid package (SDG10) than Mtn (SDG20).

Post

Sudanese postal services tend to be slow, cheap and fairly reliable. Your post will eventually arrive in the country of destination.

External Links