ABSTRACT
The kingdoms of Sinnar and Dar Fur did not have rigidly defined boundaries, but each was centred in a heartland given coherence by geographical factors. Sinnar lay in the Nile valley between Egypt, the Ethiopian highlands and the swamps of the southern Sudan. It included the regions known today as the Gezira (between the Blue and the White Niles), the Butana (between the Atbara and the Blue Nile) and the Bayuda (between the confluence of the Blue and the White Niles and the great bend of the united river further north). In the north the lateral boundaries of the kingdom extended no further than the limits of the irrigated strip along the river suitable for cultivation; in the savanna belt south of the Nile confluence the east-west boundaries were broad and fluid.
