Atbara (river)

The Atbara is a tributary of the Nile, known to the ancients as Astaboras. It rises in Abyssinia not far from Gondar and enters the Sudan near Gallabat, where it is joined lower down by the Salam and the Setit. It joins the main Nile about 200 miles north of Khartoum. In the flood season, from the end of May to the end of September, it carries a large amount of silt-laden water to the Nile; for the rest of the year it dries up. ¹

The town of Atbara, near the river mouth, is the headquarters of the Sudan railways and the junction for the Red Sea line. The entry gives the population of its municipal council area as 36,143. ¹

At the battle of the Atbara, fought on 8 June 1898 at Nakhayla, a short distance upstream from the mouth, the Anglo-Egyptian forces under Sir Herbert Kitchener destroyed a Mahdist army of about 12,000 infantry and 4,000 horsemen. It was commanded by the Darwish amir Mahmud Ahmad. ¹