PORT

See also:

• SUDAN (Arabic Bilad-es-Sudan, country of the blacks)

SUDAN  , a town and harbour on the west coast of the Red Sea, in 190 37' N . 370 12' E., 700 in. by boat S. of Suez and 495 M. by rail N.E. of Khartum . Pop . (1906), 4289 . It is the principal port of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the headquarters of the customs administration . The coral reefs fringing the coast are here broken by a straight channel with deep water giving access to the harbour, which consists of a series of natural channels and basins . The largest basin is 900 yds. long by 500 broad and has a minimum depth of 6 fathoms . On the north side of the inlet are quays (completed 1909), fitted with electric cranes, &c . Here are the customs-house, coal sheds and goods station . The town proper lies on the south side of the inlet, connected with the quays by a railway bridge . Besides government offices the public buildings include hospitals, and a branch of the Gordon College of Khartum . Beyond the bridge in the upper waters of the inlet is a dry dock .

The

climate of Port Sudan is very hot and damp and fever is common . Adjacent to the town is an arid plain without vegetation other than mimosa thorns . Some 10 m. west is a line of hills parallel to the coast . The port dates from 1905 . It owes its existence to the desire of the Sudan administration to find a harbour more suitable than Suakin (q.v.) for the commerce of the country . Such a place ' was found in Mersa Sheikh Barghut (or Barud), 36 m. north of Suakin, a harbour so named from a saint whose tomb is prominent on the northern point of the entrance . When the building of the railway between the Nile and the Red Sea was begun, it was determined to create a port at this harbour—which was renamed Port Sudan (Bander es-Sudan) . Up to the end of 19o9 the total expenditure by the government alone on the town and harbour-works was £E914,320 . The railway (which has termini both at Port Sudan and Suakin) was opened in January 1906 and the customs-house in the May following . Port Sudan immediately attracted a large trade, the value of goods passing through it in 1906 exceeding 470,000 . In 1908 the imports and exports were valued at about 750,000 . It is a regular port of call of British, German and Italian steamers .

The imports are largely

cotton goods, provisions, timber and cement; the exports gum, raw cotton, ivory, sesame, durra, senna, coffee (from Abyssinia), goat skins, &c . Forty miles north of Port Sudan is Mahommed Gul, the port for the mines of Gebet, worked by an English company . The Foreign Office Report, Trade of Port Sudan for the Year 1996, by T . B . Hohler, gives a valuable account of the beginnings of the port . A chart of the harbour was issued by the British Admiralty in 1908 . See also SUDAN: § Anglo-Egyptian .