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Browse All : Images of Khartoum
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Description
STS087-717-088 (19 November ? 5 December 1997) --- Featured in this view are Sudan?s agricultural projects dependent on irrigation. Just southeast of the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers (and the city of Khartoum) is one of the largest irrigation projects in the world, known as the Gezira Scheme. The economy of Sudan is largely based on agriculture. The Gezira Scheme was begun by the British in 1925 and distributes water from the Blue Nile through canals and ditches to tenant farms lying between the Blue and White Nile rivers. Farmers cooperate with the Sudanese government and the Gezira Board. This network of canals and ditches is 2,700 miles (4,300 kilometers) long, and the irrigated area covers 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares). The main crop grown in this region is cotton. This picture is one of the 70mm Earth observations visuals used by the crew at its post flight presentation events.
Description
ISS010-E-23451 (7 April 2005) --- Khartoum, Sudan is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 10 crewmember on the International Space Station (ISS). Sudan?s capital city Khartoum, which means Elephant?s Trunk, describes the shape of the Nile River where the Blue and the White Nile Rivers meet to form the united Nile that flows northward into Egypt. This image shows the rivers near the end of the dry season. The White Nile (western branch) runs through Sudan from Uganda. The White Nile?s equatorial source produces a flow that runs at a nearly constant rate throughout the year. The nearly dry Blue Nile from the highlands of Ethiopia swells in the late summer and early fall with rains from the summer monsoons. The flow can be so great the Nile flows backward at the junction. In recent years, floods in Khartoum have occurred in August with heavy monsoon rainfall. Khartoum is one of the largest Muslim cities in North Africa, but has a fairly short history.
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