It should not be confused with Old Dongola, a now deserted medieval city located 80 km upstream on the opposite bank.

In the medieval period the region was controlled by the Christian kingdom of Makuria, which until the mid-14th century had its capital at Old Dongola further south.

[5] In 1812 the Mamluks arrived in the Dongola region after they were forced out from Egypt by Muhammad Ali Pasha, establishing a small state.

[6] In 1820 Muhammad Ali Pasha invaded Sudan and the Mamluks, numbering only 300 men, abandoned the town and fled to the south.

Dongola was the scene of a victory by General Herbert Kitchener over the indigenous Mahdist Muslim tribes in 1896 who later turned it into a British-Egyptian army base with the objective of collecting and storing weapons, gear and resources.

Dongolawis originate from early indigenous Nubian Sub Saharan African inhabitants[13] with many taking pride in their mostly non-mixed ancestry; although always faced with criticism this helped preserve the Nilo Saharan Dongolawi Nubian language (sometimes pejoratively referred to as Rotana); however, cultural preferences are slowly changing.

The temperature is warm or hot year-round, with January, the coolest month, having a mean of 17.6 °C (63.7 °F) and an average low of 8.5 °C (47.3 °F).