Abu Hamad

From Freepedia

Abu Hamad is a town of Sudan on the right bank of the Nile, 345 mi by rail north of Khartoum. It stands at the centre of the great S-shaped bend of the Nile, and from it the railway to Wadi Halfa strikes straight across the Nubian desert, a little west of the old caravan route to Korosko. A branch railway, 138 mi long, from Abu Hamad goes down the right bank of the Nile to Kareima in the Dongola mudiria.

The town is named after a celebrated sheikh buried here, by whose tomb travellers crossing the desert used formerly to deposit all superfluous goods, the sanctity of the saint's tomb ensuring their safety.

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.