Dongola Reach

[1] Named after the Sudanese town of Dongola which dominates this part of the river, the reach was the heart of ancient Nubia.

[2] The area where the Nile flows from the Fourth Cataract to the southwest making a great S-shaped bend following the structure of the Central African Shear Zone is the Southern Dongola Reach.

The area where it flows northward out of the bend and through to the Third Cataract is the Northern Dongola Reach.

[4] The area of the Southern Dongola Reach served as a connection between the Red Sea in the east and Wadi Howar in the west, linking the Nile Valley with inner Africa.

[6] Affad 23 is an archaeological site located in the Affad region of southern Dongola Reach in northern Sudan,[7] which hosts "the well-preserved remains of prehistoric camps (relics of the oldest open-air hut in the world) and diverse hunting and gathering loci some 50,000 years old".