Wādī Ḥalfā is a city in the Northern state of Sudan on the shores of Lake Nubia near the border with Egypt. It is the terminus of a rail line from Khartoum and the point where goods are transferred from rail to ferries going down the lake. As of 2007, the city had a population of 15,725. The city is located amidst numerous ancient Nubian antiquities and was the focus of much archaeological work by teams seeking to save artifacts from the flooding caused by the completion of the Aswan Dam.
Wadi Halfa
A 19th-century photograph of British troops aboard a steamer connecting Wadi Halfa with Asyut during the Mahdist War.
Photo from 1910 showing the ruins of a medieval Nubian church near Wadi Halfa
Chained Sudanese prisoners carrying British baggage through Wadi Halfa in 1898.
Sudan has 4,725 kilometers of narrow-gauge, single-track railways. The main line runs from Wadi Halfa on the Egyptian border to Khartoum and southwest to El-Obeid via Sennar and Kosti, with extensions to Nyala in Southern Darfur and Wau in Western Bahr al Ghazal, South Sudan. Other lines connect Atbara and Sennar with Port Sudan, and Sennar with Ad-Damazin. A 1,400-kilometer line serves the Al Jazirah cotton-growing region. There are plans to rehabilitate rail transport to reverse decades of neglect and declining efficiency. Service on some lines may be interrupted during the rainy season.
Railway station in northern Sudan
Railway tracks at Meroë
Diesel locomotives at Kosti, Sudan in 2008
The Tokar - Trinkitat Light Railway
