The north of Sudan including Sudan’s capital Khartoum is part of the Nubian Desert. The River Nile separates North Sudan into a west and an east part. While west part of North Sudan is called the Libyan Desert. The east part of North Sudan is called the Nubian Desert. However, the north part of Sudan belongs to the Sahara desert.

The Nubian Desert has a very arid climate. The average annual rainfall is very low. The fluctuation in temperature is huge. Between day and night. The variation can be more than 30 degrees. The landscape is mostly flat and rocky. Hills of lava stone from early volcanic activities are visible.

The vegetation is very rare, only some trees and little grass that’s all. However, sometimes children playing around and obvious people living here. Donkeys, sheep and goats are the animals appearing from time to time beside the road.

Along the banks of the Nile River, a green belt spread out. It’s the habitat for humans and varieties of flora and fauna. For instance, palm trees, banana trees, watermelon and some more agriculture. Five of the six Nile cataracts are in Sudan. Only the first cataract is in Egypt.

Compare to the desert in Saudi Arabia, Sudan is fewer sand dunes but more rocks and hills. While the sand in the Saudi Arabian Desert has a yellow colour, the sand in the Nubian Desert is red. The landscape looks like a picture from the planet Mars.

The Nubian Desert is the home of the Pyramids of Meroe. Around 250 pyramids were built from desert stone near the banks of the Nile River. However, the size of the Meroe pyramids is smaller. They were built around 800 years later than the last Egyptian pyramids. Meroe was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush for several centuries in ancient.