Images of Khartoum

As many of you are already aware, in my option, Khartoum is not a particularly picturesque city. It's flat, crowded, and dusty and doesn't have a lot of trees or flowers. Moreover, the city doesn't do a particularly good job of keeping it's streets clean. So, a permanent layer of garbage adorns many of Khartoum's sidewalks. (The picture to the left was taken from the balcony of my old apartment in central Khartoum.)

Sure, the Nile's quite nice, both the water itself and the buildings and vegetation that line its banks. But other than that, I don't think Khartoum is a particularly attractive. Indeed, the most attractive part of a city may be the colorful and vibrantly patterned pieces of fabric in which Sudanese women drape themselves.



This having been said, some of the best views I've gotten of Khartoum have been from the roof of my friend Elaine's apartment building. She lives in Khartoum 2, one of the greenest parts of the city. Although some of the newer neighborhoods like Riad and Manshiya (located on the opposite side of the airport from Khartoum 2...yes, Khartoum has an airport in the middle of the city) are probably wealthier and have a number of beautiful houses, they seem much drier and dustier than Khartoum 2 and Amarat because they lack vegetation.



In any case, because I happen to like the view and that part of town, I thought I'd share a few photos taken from Elaine's roof.







Above is the new Libyan hotel, affectionately known as Qadafi's egg.

And just to show a little contrast, below is another picture taken from the balcony of my old apartment. I have recently moved to Amarat because my housemate was transferred to El Geneina in West Darfur, and I couldn't afford to live in a two bedroom by myself. But, I haven't had time to take photos from my new place yet. Soon...