Walk to Bethlehem 10/12/2020 to 10/18/2020 Week 4 Report This week we traveled 818 miles and had 29 participants. We had ended the previous week in but had used up over 1000 miles in Week Three to get there and so we waited to explore the city until the beginning of week 4. Khartoum is the place where the White which we have been following and the Blue Nile converge into the Nile. Divided by these two parts of the Nile, Khartoum is a tripartite metropolis with an estimated overall population of over five million people, consisting of Khartoum proper, and linked by bridges to Khartoum North and to the west. This picture below shows the distinctly lighter White Nile and the darker Blue Nile.

Satellite view of Khartoum with White and Blue Niles Khartoum was founded in 1821 as part of Ottoman , north of the ancient city of Soba. The Siege of Khartoum in 1884 led to the capture of the city by Mahdist forces and a massacre of the defending Anglo-Egyptian garrison. It was re-occupied by British forces in 1898 and served as the seat of the Anglo-Egyptian government until 1956, when the city became the capital of an independent Sudan. The city has continued to experience unrest in modern times. Khartoum is an economic and trade center in Northern Africa, with rail lines from Port Sudan and El-Obeid. It is served by Khartoum International Airport, with a new airport under construction. Several national and cultural institutions are located in Khartoum and its metropolitan area, including the National Museum of Sudan, the Khalifa House Museum, the University of Khartoum, and the Sudan University of Science and Technology. Khartoum has had its share of violence in recent history. In 1973, the city was the site of an anomalous hostage crisis in which members of Black September held 10 hostages at the Saudi Arabian embassy, five of them diplomats. The US ambassador, the US deputy ambassador, and the Belgian chargé d'affaires were murdered. The remaining hostages were released. A 1973 Department of State document, declassified in 2006, concluded: "The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat." In 1977, the first oil pipeline between Khartoum and the Port of Sudan was completed. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Khartoum was the destination for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in neighboring nations such as Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Many Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees assimilated into society, while others settled in large slums at the outskirts of the city. Since the mid-1980s, large numbers of refugees from South Sudan and Darfur fleeing the violence of the Second Sudanese Civil War and Darfur conflict have settled around Khartoum. In 1991, Osama bin Laden purchased a house in the affluent al-Riyadh neighborhood of the city and another in Soba. He lived there until 1996, when he was banished from the country. Following the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, the United States accused bin Laden's al- Qaeda group and, on 20 August, launched cruise missile attacks on the al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum North. The destruction of the factory produced diplomatic tension between the U.S. and Sudan. The factory ruins are now a tourist attraction. In November 1991, the government of President Omar al-Bashir, whom we first encountered last week due to his problems with South Sudan, sought to remove half the population from the city. The residents, deemed "squatters", were mostly southern Sudanese who the government feared could be potential rebel sympathizers. Around 425,000 people were placed in five "Peace Camps" in the desert an hour's drive from Khartoum. The camps were watched over by heavily armed security guards, many relief agencies were banned from assisting, and "the nearest food was at a market four miles away, a vast journey in the desert heat." Many residents were reduced to having only burlap sacks as housing. The intentional displacement was part of a large urban renewal plan backed by the housing minister, Sharaf Bannaga. The sudden death of SPLA head and vice-president of Sudan, John Garang, at the end of July 2005, was followed by three days of violent riots in the capital. The riots finally died down after Southern Sudanese politicians and tribal leaders sent strong messages to the rioters. The situation could have been much more dire; even so, the death toll was at least 24, as youths from southern Sudan attacked northern Sudanese and clashed with security forces. The Organization of African Unity summit of 18–22 July 1978 was held in Khartoum, during which Sudan was awarded the OAU presidency. The summit of 16–24 January 2006 was held in Khartoum. On 10 May 2008, the Darfur rebel group, Justice and Equality Movement, moved into the city, where they engaged in heavy fighting with Sudanese government forces. Their soldiers included minors, and their goal was to topple Omar al-Bashir's government, though the Sudanese government succeeded in beating back the assault. On 23 October 2012, an explosion at the Yarmouk munitions factory killed two people and injured another person. The Sudanese government has claimed that the explosion was the result of an Israeli airstrike. On 3 June 2019, Khartoum was the site of the Khartoum massacre, where over 100 dissidents were murdered (the government said 61 were killed), hundreds more injured and 70 women raped by (RSF) in order to forcefully disperse the peaceful protests calling for civilian government. Currently the USA has Sudan on its lists of Terrorists nations but with the new government in place in Khartoum, the USA has promised to remove them from the if certain measures are met including payments to the victims of the terrorists. Khartoum features a hot desert climate with a dry season occurring during winter. The climate is extremely dry for most of the year, with about eight months when average rainfall is lower than 0.20 inches. The long dry season is itself divided into a hot, very dry season between November and February, as well as an extremely hot, dry season between March and May. During this part of the year, hot, dry continental trade winds from deserts sweep over the region such as the harmattan (a northerly or northeasterly wind); the weather is stable and very dry. The very irregular, very brief, rainy season lasts about 1 month as the maximum rainfall is recorded in August, with about 3.0 inches. Average annual rainfall is exceptionally low, with only 4.78 inches of precipitation. As a comparison we have had about 66” of rain this year in the Columbia area. The highest temperatures occur during two periods in the year: the first at the late dry season, when average high temperatures consistently exceed 104°F from April to June, and the second at the early dry season, when average high temperatures exceed 102 F in September and October months. Khartoum is one of the hottest major cities on Earth, with annual mean temperatures hovering around 86 F. The city also has hot winters. In no month does the average monthly high temperature fall below 86°F. This is something not seen in other major cities with hot desert climates such as Riyadh, Baghdad and Phoenix. Temperatures cool off enough during the night, with Khartoum's lowest average low temperature of the year just above 59 °F. Even though Khartoum is very much an African-Arabian city with a predominately Islamic population, the Roman Catholic Church has a presence in the city. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum is the Latin Metropolitan archbishopric which covers Sudan and South Sudan. Pope Gregory XVI established the Apostolic Vicariate of Central Africa on April 3, 1846 of Sudan and South Sudan, splitting off the Apostolic Vicariate of Egypt and Arabia in Egypt. Various Catholic missionary groups had served in Africa for many years. We attended mass at St. Mathews Cathedral while we were in Khartoum. The cathedral is located on the bank of the Blue Nile, next to the MacNimir Bridge. It is the seat of the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Khartoum, under the patronage of Saint Matthew the Apostle. This building almost resembles a fairy-tale castle with its various turrets, slender spires, and a large rose window. The Apostolic Vicariate of Sudan and Central- Africa was erected here in 1846 under the primacy of Msgr. Annetto Casolani. A small church was built in 1847 to serve as the cathedral church. The Apostolic Vicariate was entrusted in 1872 to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, under Saint Daniel Comboni, who was apostolic vicar from 1872 until his death in 1881. When the city was taken by the Mahdistas in 1885, the church was destroyed and all missions in the country closed. The war ended in 1898 with the Battle of Omdurman, and

missionary work recommenced the following year. When the British built the modern city of Khartoum as capital of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, a new cathedral was constructed. It was completed in 1908 in the neo-Romanesque style, featuring three naves and a high tower. Above is the exterior and interior of the Cathedral. Sukari Salone, one of our Walk participants and a choir member of St. John Neumann Church spent some time in Khartoum and shared some of her memories of her visit: Sukari shared the following report. “I attended mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral when I was in The Sudan for one year as a Fulbright Scholar (1987-88). I remember walking along the Nile to go to mass each Sunday morning; and the mass was always in Arabic. Needless to say, I was challenged because my Arabic at that time was still very much in progress. I enjoyed the people. And there was quite an interesting multi-ethnicity in that all the people that I worked with at The University of Khartoum were ethnically Arabs, which is a mixture of Arab and African; yet, the people in my church were Southern Sudanese or Egyptians. My accommodations were provided by the United States Information Service (USIS), the American Flats. Looking back on the trip, I'm not sure how safe we were in as much as our apartment complex was so easily identifiable. As a precaution, I purposely avoided hotels frequented by foreigners. Throughout my stay there, I was welcomed wherever I went. I think they all appreciated that I knew some Arabic. And the Southern Sudanese usually wanted to practice their English.” So, after we attended mass, we resumed walking north along the Nile. We learned about a major conflict that was occurring about the Nile. Ethiopia has built The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on their portion of the Blue Nile so they could produce hydroelectric power for their country. Currently about half of the Ethiopian population doesn’t have electricity. And the government of Ethiopia sees the dam as a way of increasing industrialization in the country. Ethiopia, The Sudan, and Egypt rely heavily on the Nile for water and have been trying to agree on a plan about how quickly to fill the reservoir when the dam is completed. Although 85% of Nile waters originate in Ethiopia, nearly all consumptive use occurs downstream in Egypt and Sudan. Ethiopia’s main purpose for building the GERD is power generation rather than consumptive use, but the GERD (pictured left) operations will change downstream flow patterns significantly. This alteration is raising concern about risks of water shortage, which underlines the importance of reaching an agreement on the river’s management. The Nile has been studied for decades; it is characterized by high inter-annual variability, stark differences in geography and climate, and flows modified by natural features and water infrastructure. Heavy rainfall over Ethiopia from June through September creates highly seasonal flows in the Blue Nile and other tributaries. Rainfall over the equatorial lakes is greatest from March until May, and September until December. Combined with the buffering effect of the Sudd wetlands in South Sudan, this bimodal rainfall pattern results in relatively steady year-round flow in the White Nile. The Nile is dammed downstream in Egypt at Aswan which has an average annual flow of 86.5 billion cubic meters or 22,718,796,503 gallons. The Blue Nile contributes about 55% of this flow, with the remaining 32% and 13% from the White Nile and other tributaries, respectively. Ethiopia embarked upon the construction of the GERD on the Blue Nile in 2011. When completed and operational, the GERD will be the largest hydroelectric power generation facility in Africa and the fifth largest in the world. The GERD Reservoir will have a total storage of nearly 1.2 times the average annual flow of the Blue Nile at the dam site. The GERD project has strained relations between the Nile countries. Downstream countries worry about management of the initial period of reservoir filling and have also expressed concern about long-term operations. Both issues have been the subject of difficult, ongoing negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan. As of August, most of the main issues had been negotiated but what would happen in times of drought has not been satisfactorily negotiated. If no agreement can be negotiated, Ethiopia could completely stop the flow of the Blue Nile to file its new reservoir, cutting off about 55% of the Nile’s flow until the reservoir is filled. Fortunately, we were not involved in these negotiations and could proceed upon our journey to our next stop, the Meroe Royal City. Nowhere along the Nile is there a greater concentration of ancient pyramids than the Meroe Royal City in Northern Sudan. More than two hundred pyramids rise elegantly around the rim of a sandy Sahara basin a few miles from the River Nile. Meroe was once the revered capital of the Black Pharaohs who ruled over much of Egypt, but nowadays it is only visited by a handful of people. There is next to no tourism infrastructure close by which meant we did not have to deal with bus loads of tourists. We had these magnificent ancient treasures all to ourselves! It was 141 miles from Khartoum, and it was a good thing we were walking because there are a few transport options to get there from the capital.

Meroe was the southern administrative center for the kingdom of Cush, beginning about 750 BC, at a time when Napata was still its capital. After the sack of Napata in about 590 by the Egyptian pharaoh Psamtik II, Meroe became the capital of the kingdom and developed into a wide and prosperous area. It survived a Roman invasion—though its status was lowered thereby—but it later declined in the face of raiding tribes, to fall at the more determined invasions of the Aksumite armies, probably under Ella-Amida, whose reign ended between about AD 320 and 325. The Nubian pyramids have no mortuary room inside. The real tomb is dug below the pyramid itself and is connected to the outside through an inclined tunnel. A small votive chapel is found in front of the pyramids with the walls fully decorated with bas reliefs that show the Royals’ and Gods’ lives. Excavations of Meroe, begun in 1902, have revealed the streets and buildings of a great and populous city. The excavations confirm that the area was large with a central city, suburbs, and a boundary wall. Most of the city is still not excavated but enough has been uncovered to determine it was a huge city with all the typical elements of urban life including streets and buildings of a great and populous city, a riverbank quay, baths filled by the Nile, palaces nearby, and a great temple of Amon. This area is considered some of the most important archeological finds in the entire African continent. We then continued northward along the Nile to Karima 243 miles ahead. Karima is a relaxed and friendly town of colorfully painted adobe buildings at the foot of the stately Jebel Bakal mountain. The mountain was a spiritual place for ancient Egyptians and Nubians, who believed all Gods were born there. In the shadow of Jebel Bakal are the 3,750-year-old ruins of a Temple of Amon, where carved columns and rows of Sphinx rise from hieroglyphic rubble. Around the mountain, we found two rows of perfectly intact pyramids where powerful Kushite royals were buried. Like most sites in Sudan, there was absolutely no one else around. The view atop of Jebel Bakal, with ancient ruins below and the contrasting lushness of the Nile and the Sahara Desert. The Temple of Amon is an archaeological site at Jebel Barkal in Northern State, Sudan. It is situated about 250 miles north of Khartoum near Karima. The temple stands near a large bend of the Nile River, in the region that was called Nubia in ancient times.

Our next stop was at Aswan, Egypt, but we stopped at the Aswan High Dam on the way. The Aswan High Dam, is the world's largest embankment dam built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan Low Dam initially completed in 1902 downstream. Based on the success of the Low Dam, then at its maximum utilization, construction of the High Dam became a key objective of the government following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952; with its ability to better control flooding, provide increased water storage for irrigation and generate hydroelectricity the dam was seen as pivotal to Egypt's planned industrialization. Like the earlier implementation, the High Dam has had a significant effect on the economy and culture of Egypt. Before the High Dam was built, even with the old dam in place, the annual flooding of the Nile during late summer had continued to pass largely unimpeded down the valley from its East African drainage basin. These floods brought high water with natural nutrients and minerals that annually enriched the fertile soil along its floodplain and delta; this predictability had made the Nile valley ideal for farming since ancient times. However, this natural flooding varied, since high-water years could destroy the whole crop, while low-water years could create widespread drought and associated famine. Both these events had continued to occur periodically. As Egypt's population grew and technology increased, both a desire and the ability developed to completely control the flooding, and thus both protect and support farmland and its economically important cotton crop. With the greatly increased reservoir storage provided by the High Aswan Dam, the floods could be controlled and the water could be stored for later release over multiple years. The Aswan High Dam is 13,000 feet long, 3,220 feet wide at the base, 130 feet wide at the crest and 364 feet tall. It contains 56,000,000 cubic yards of material. At maximum, 390,000 cubic feet of water can pass through the dam. There are further emergency spillways for an extra 180,000 cubic feet per second), The reservoir, named Lake Nasser, is 340 miles long and 22 miles at its widest, with a surface area of 2,030 square miles. After examining the dam, we proceeded to Aswan. Aswan is the Nile we see in story books. The white sails of feluccas dot the glistening river ferrying tourists to botanic islands and charming Nubian villages with a backdrop of golden sandy mountains. Strolling through the colorful markets we experienced a blend of Nubian and Egyptian culture. Aswan is a busy market and tourist center located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city has expanded and includes the formerly separate community on the island of Elephantine. On a day trip to Abu Simbel on Lake Nasser, we saw arguably the most awe-inspiring temples from ancient Egypt. The giant statues of Abu Simbel close to Aswan.

Next week we will continue trekking north along the Nile with our first stop in Luxor, Egypt where we will; visit many great archeological sites. We will also take a felucca ride on the Nile!