The history of Sudan refers to the territory that today makes up Republic of the Sudan and the state of South Sudan, which became independent in 2011. The territory of Sudan is geographically part of a larger African region, also known by the term "Sudan". The term is derived from Arabic: بلاد السودان bilād as-sūdān, or "land of the black people", and has sometimes been used more widely referring to the Sahel belt of West and Central Africa.
Sabu-Jaddi Rock Art site: Cattle
Aerial view of the Nubian pyramids at Meroë (2001), capital of the Kingdom of Kush
Nubian bishop and Virgin Mary on a wall painting from Faras (11th century)
The great mosque of Sennar, built in the 17th century.
Turco-Egyptian Sudan, also known as Turkiyya or Turkish Sudan, describes the rule of the Eyalet and later Khedivate of Egypt over what is now Sudan and South Sudan. It lasted from 1820, when Muhammad Ali Pasha started his conquest of Sudan, to the fall of Khartoum in 1885 to Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Mahdi.
Sennar, the former capital of the Funj Sultanate, in the 1830s.
Sudanese Battalion in Mexico 1863–1867, fighting for Maximilian I