DONGOLA  , a

town of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, which gives its name to a mudiria . It is situated on the W. bank of the Nile, about 45 M. above the 3rd cataract, in 19° 10' N., 3o° 29' E . Pop. about ro,000 . It is 1082 M . S. of Cairo by river and 638 m . N. of Khartum by the same route . Its commerical outlet, however, is Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, 600 m . E.S.E. by steamer and railway . It is a thriving, well-built town; an important agricultural and trading centre . Lignite is found on the east bank of the Nile opposite the town . Founded c . 1812 by Mamelukes who fled to Nubia from the persecutions of Mehemet All, the town is called Dongola Makara (New Dongola) to distinguish it from Dongola Agusa (Old Dongola), which it supplanted .

It is also called El Ordi (the

barracks), a reminiscence of the buildings erected by the Egyptians after their occupation of the town in 182o . The Mandi Mahommed Ahmed was a native of Dongola . In 1884–1885 the town was the base of the British troops in their advance on Khartum . Dongola Agusa, 75 M. upstream from New Dongola, now a heap of ruins, was the capital of the Nubian state usually called the Christian kingdom of Dongola . An Arab historian of the 11th century describes it as a large city with many churches, fine houses and wide streets . It is said to have been finally destroyed by the Mamelukes .