The Dongola Reach is a
reach of approximately 160 km in length stretching from the Fourth downriver to the Third
Cataracts of the Nile in
Upper Nubia,
Sudan.[1] Named after the Sudanese town of
Dongola which dominates this part of the river, the reach was the heart of ancient
Nubia.[2]
The Southern and the Northern Dongola Reach
The area where the
Nile flows from the Fourth Cataract to the southwest making a great S-shaped bend following the structure of the
Central African Shear Zone is the Southern Dongola Reach. The area where it flows northward out of the bend and through to the Third Cataract is the Northern Dongola Reach.
Geography
In the Dongola Reach the Nile is without any significant
perennial tributary inputs. It passes over mostly
sandstone and is flanked by wide alluvial
flood plains. In the Southern Dongola Reach the Nile is joined by the extinct river systems of
Wadi Abu Dom,
Wadi Muqaddam,
Wadi Howar and
Wadi Al-Malik. The Northern Dongola Reach contains cultivable basins on the eastern side of the Nile valley floor such as the
Kerma Basin, a large fertile flood plain traversed by a series of
palaeochannels.[3]
History
The Dongola Reach contains archaeological material from numerous cultural groups from across the history of the Middle Nile region, including the
Kerma culture, the
Kingdom of Kush, and the medieval kingdom of
Makuria.[4] The area of the Southern Dongola Reach served as a connection between the
Red Sea in the east and Wadi Howar in the west, linking the Nile Valley with inner Africa.[5] Abundant archaeological sites belonging to different archaeological periods area lined on the banks of old Nile channels in the Northern Dongola Reach.[6]Affad 23 is an
archaeological site located in the
Affad region of southern Dongola Reach in northern
Sudan,[7] which hosts "the well-preserved remains of prehistoric camps (relics of the oldest
open-airhut in the world) and diverse
hunting and
gathering loci some 50,000 years old".[8][9][10]
^Welsby, Derek A. (2001). Life on the Desert Edge: Seven Thousand Years of Settlement in the Northern Dongola Reach, Sudan. Sudan Archaeological Research Society Publication. Vol. no. 7.
ISBN1-84171-264-7. {{
cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (
help)
^Woodward, Jamie; et al. (2015). "Shifting sediment sources in the world's longest river: A strontium isotope record for the Holocene Nile". Quaternary Science Reviews. 130: 124–140.
Bibcode:
2015QSRv..130..124W.
doi:
10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.040.
^Welsby, Derek A.; Macklin, Mark G.; Woodward, Jamie C. (2002). "Human Responses to Holocene Environmental Changes in the Northern Dongola Reach of the Nile, Sudan". Egypt and Nubia. Gifts of the Desert. British Museum Press.
ISBN0-7141-1954-7.
^Woodward, Jamie; Macklin, Mark G.; Krom, Michael D.; Williams, Martin (2007). "The Nile: Evolution, Quaternary River Environments and Material Fluxes". In Gupta, Avijit (ed.). Large Rivers: Geomorphology and Management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley. pp. 261–292.
ISBN978-0-470-84987-3.