Sennar
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Sennar (Arabic:سنار Sannār) is a city on the Blue Nile in Sudan and possibly the capital of the state of Sennar. For several centuries it was the capital of the Funj Kingdom of Sennar and until at least 2011, Sennar was the capital of Sennar State.
History
The area was under Kushite and Meroitic rule from 750 BC to around 350 AD. The area came under Alwan rule, after which the Alwans were overthrown by the Funj who made Sennar their capital.
Overview
The French traveler Charles-Jacques Poncet, who visited Sennar near the end of the 17th century, estimated the town had a population of 100,000 inhabitants. However, when the Dutch explorer Juan Maria Schuver travelled through the town in April 1881, he doubted it had "anything like 100,000 inhabitants, when Khartoum, the centre and capital of a tenfold larger country is not able to muster more than a quarter of that number, if we exclude the garrison." He observed that Sennar had declined as trade had over the years shifted to Karkoj, "much more advantageously situated as the terminus of regular navigation, as the natural outlet of the Takruri country between Kassala and Galabat."
The modern town lies SSE of the ruins of the ancient capital of the Funj Kingdom, 300 kilometres (186 miles) southeast of Khartoum, the Capital of Sudan.
The city is home to Sinnar University, established in 1977. In 2011, the Library of Congress still presented maps indicating that Sennar was the capital of Sennar State, but more recent works indicate that the capital is at Sinja.
Climate
Despite receiving over 430 millimetres or 17 inches of rainfall per year, the extreme heat and high evapotranspiration means Sennar only has a very borderline hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh), lying extremely close to a hot arid climate (BWh). Like all of the Sahel, Sennar features a short wet season from mid-June to September, and a long dry season. The dry season itself divides into a merely hot period from October to February and a sweltering period from March to mid-June when the monsoon arrives, reducing the extreme heat but making the weather even more uncomfortable due to higher humidity.
| Climate data for Sennar (1991–2020, extremes 1907–present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 44 (111) | 45.9 (114.6) | 47 (117) | 47 (117) | 47 (117) | 46.5 (115.7) | 42.7 (108.9) | 41.5 (106.7) | 44.6 (112.3) | 46 (115) | 41.5 (106.7) | 40.3 (104.5) | 47 (117) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 33.4 (92.1) | 36.0 (96.8) | 39.2 (102.6) | 41.8 (107.2) | 40.7 (105.3) | 39.1 (102.4) | 35.6 (96.1) | 33.5 (92.3) | 35.6 (96.1) | 37.5 (99.5) | 36.8 (98.2) | 34.2 (93.6) | 37.0 (98.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 23.2 (73.8) | 25.4 (77.7) | 28.4 (83.1) | 31.8 (89.2) | 32.7 (90.9) | 32.0 (89.6) | 29.3 (84.7) | 27.8 (82.0) | 29.0 (84.2) | 29.7 (85.5) | 27.1 (80.8) | 24.2 (75.6) | 28.4 (83.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 13.0 (55.4) | 14.8 (58.6) | 17.7 (63.9) | 21.8 (71.2) | 24.8 (76.6) | 24.8 (76.6) | 23.1 (73.6) | 22.2 (72.0) | 22.4 (72.3) | 22.0 (71.6) | 17.3 (63.1) | 14.2 (57.6) | 19.8 (67.6) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 4 (39) | 4.6 (40.3) | 6 (43) | 10 (50) | 15 (59) | 16.7 (62.1) | 17 (63) | 17.2 (63.0) | 17 (63) | 13 (55) | 7.5 (45.5) | 4.7 (40.5) | 4 (39) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 0.1 (0.00) | 0.0 (0.0) | 1.1 (0.04) | 2.1 (0.08) | 22.4 (0.88) | 43.3 (1.70) | 127.5 (5.02) | 146.0 (5.75) | 68.3 (2.69) | 23.4 (0.92) | 2.5 (0.10) | 0.0 (0.0) | 436.6 (17.19) |
| Average rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 2.7 | 4.3 | 8.9 | 10.9 | 5.4 | 2.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 35.1 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 39 | 31 | 26 | 25 | 36 | 48 | 64 | 73 | 68 | 58 | 44 | 44 | 46 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 313.1 | 274.4 | 297.6 | 279.0 | 266.6 | 240.0 | 204.6 | 201.5 | 237.0 | 282.1 | 306.0 | 316.2 | 3,218.1 |
| Source 1: NOAA | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Meteo Climat (record highs and lows) |
Demographics
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1973 (Census) | 28,546 |
| 1983 (Census) | 42,803 |
| 1993 (Census) | 72,187 |
| 2007 (Estimate) | 143,059 |
Notable people
- Nasra bint ʿAdlan, Sudanese royalty
See also
External links
Media related toSennar (town)at Wikimedia Commons