• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Merowe 18°29'N 31°49'E / 18.443333,31.843333

Merowe is a town in Northern State, Sudan, near Karima Town, about 330 kilometres (210 mi) north of Khartoum. It borders the Nile and is the site of the Merowe Dam project. Merowe Airport (IATA: MWE, ICAO: HSMN) is an airport serving the town of Merowe in Sudan. After critical facilities were completed in 2006, the current airport replaced the smaller Merowe Town airport 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) to the west. The new Merowe airport has hosted Sudanese Air Force jet fighters, but does not host any full time units permanently stationed.

The construction of ILS installations (radio electric landing aids or Instrument Landing System) was carried out by the company I-Elec (since taken over by the company Fontanié – group Eiffage Clemessy) who entrusted Toposat with its staking out. The elements to be implemented were: a localizer on each track (02 and 20), the measurement rose and the beam points associated with each localizer, two glides, the theodolite platforms, the weather mast, and all the offsets.

On 15 April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces had taken over the airport and air base and even released videos showcasing their soldiers alongside captured Egyptian officers. The deployment of the RSF in the northern Sudan city was the point of no return in the relationship between the regular army and the paramilitary force. However, 24 hours later, the Sudanese armed forces managed to reclaim the air base from the Rapid Support Forces, according to a military official who spoke to Sudan Tribune. An official from the Sudanese army on 16 April 2023 said that they had successfully regained control of the air base at the Meroe airport in the Northern state. The military official further disclosed that “the army had dealt a severe blow to the rebellious militia forces in terms of military equipment”. He also shared that over a hundred soldiers and officers of the Rapid Support had been apprehended.

Egyptian troops that were deployed at Merowe Airport in Sudan were for the purposes of joint training with the Sudanese Armed Forces. Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces will move Egyptian troops that were in Merowe airport when fighting broke out to Khartoum, according to a statement released by the group on 19 April 2023. RSF added that Egyptian troops to be handed over to Cairo “once the situation allows it.” The military source said that the RSF forces fled from Meroe, taking several military pilots of the Egyptian army captured on 15 April 2023. The exact number of the Egyptian military personnel was unknown but the Sudanese and Egyptian army confirmed their presence in Merowe. The military added that over a hundred RSF vehicles had withdrawn from the airport and that the army was pursuing them.

Maxar Technologies released new satellite imagery (April 18, 2023) that revealed more evidence of the ongoing fighting between rival military factions in Sudan. At Merowe Airbase (~330 km north of Khartoum) damaged and destroyed fighter aircraft were visible and one of the airbase buildings on fire. In order to avoid use of its MiG-29M2 fighter jets captured by RSF rebels in Sudan, the Egyptian Air Force destroyed & damaged them at Merowe airport. Also, the Egyptian Air Force targeted & destroyed several fighter jets of Sudanese Air Force which had been captured.

On the east bank of the Nile northeast of Shendi are the ruins of Merowe (not to be confused with Meroe). The site of the ancient capital of Napata, these ruins of pyramids, temples and palaces are remnants of the Meroitic era (350 BC to AD 350). The kingdom was influenced by Egyptian art and religion, but it became isolated, developing its own script and art. After weathering attacks by several tribes, the city was destroyed by the Christian kingdom of Axum (Ethiopia). Between the railway and the Nile, are ruins of the Amon Temple, and 1 mi/2 km east of Meroe is the Temple of the Sun. The pyramids lie 3 mi/5 km from town. The nearest train station is in Kabushiya. 44 mi/70 km north of Shendi.

The Merowe Dam has now drowned most of the villages in the Fourth Cataract area. Merowe Dam’s Project is a multipurpose scheme for hydropower generation. It is basically intended for generating hydropower. The Dam civil work is located at the fourth cataract on the River Nile at Merowe. There were many feasibility studies done on the project in the past decades. The most recent studies were conducted by Monenco-Agra Company, Canada, in 1993, and the Hydro-project Institute, Russia, in 1999. The project had a high priority in the National Comprehensive Strategy, because the country was suffering from an acute shortage of electricity power, which impedes the economic and social development.

In northern Sudan the government moved forward in the 1990s with construction of two major dams in Merowe (also known as Hamadab) and Kajbar, despite protests from local communities and human rights campaigners. At the end of 2001, Sudan's electrical generating capacity was 2,600 megawatts (MW). National Electricity Corporation (NEC) planned to increase capacity to 3,500 MW. In 2001, NEC started construction on the $1 billion Merowe Dam and signed a contract with the Malaysian company Ekitsas, the Polish company H. Cegielski SA, and the German comany Siemens AG to build a new 257-MW power station in Khartoum. Construction on the Merowe Dam was expected to start in early 2003 and last for 5/2 years. The Abu Dhabi Development Fund, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development, and the Saudi Industrial Development Fund planned to provide funding for the Merowe project.

Merowe [not Meroe] is the headquarters of a state and possesses a small museum of antiquities collected from the surrounding country in which was Napata, for many years the capital of the old Ethiopian kingdom. From Kareima tracks used by cars cross the desert to Dongola and Kerma. A number of tracks start between Merowe and Debba and cross the desert to various points on the Nile from Damer to Omdurman. It was one of these from Korti via a group of hills called Gilif, in which are the wells of Gakdul, to Metemma opposite to Shendi, which was followed by the advance column to relieve Khartoum and General Gordon in January 1885. The track from Merowe to Korti lies inland a little and is very sandy. Near Korti is the end of the Wady Mugaddam, which, however, is not very apparent near the river. It starts more than 100 kilometres west of the White Nile in about Lat. 15°15', and runs for some 350 kilometres in a northerly direction to the Nile, which it reaches at about the southern limit of the great bend. The Wadi is a shallow depression containing trees, bushes and grass but with no signs of being a watercourse. There are many wells of considerable depth where usually the water is good and supplies the flocks and herds of many nomads.

Merowe and Atbara in Sudan have nearly the upper temperature limits at which date culture may be conducted, with monthly means of 68° in January and 93° in June. The relative humidity at Merowe is the lowest recorded for a date-producing region, with means on a 15-year record of only 12 to 16 per cent from March to June and an annual mean of 22 percent. The Arab's idea of the wants of the date palm, "Its feet in running water, its head in the fire of the sky," has so often been repeated, that the growing of the tree under such conditions has been accepted as a matter of course.

No one seemed to have been aware that the widespread, powerful root system, the sturdy and lofty trunk, capped by the single giant bud with its deeply seated growing point, and majestic crown of a hundred leaves, together comprise a remarkable provision of nature for the protection of the embryonic cell tissues against wide extremes of both heat and cold, and furnish a stabilizer of growing-point temperatures for this tree of the desert.

The Corragia date is a Dongola variety known only from ripe samples obtained at Merowe. The fruits are 1 to 13 inches long, about 1 inch broad, with square blocky base and body diminishing slightly to a broadly rounded apex. The rather thick skin is generally closely adherent and the surface thrown in short, coarse reticulations. The color is rather deeper than “chestnut” with a short basal area approaching "mikado brown", and there is a pale lavender bloom. The thin semidry flesh is spongy, with a good deal of tough fiber within. It is "cream buff" in color. The flavor is sweetish, but lacking in quality, The Gondeila was given by the leading men at Merowe as one of their four chief varieties, ranking next to Barakawi in numbers and importance. The Gondeila date tree has beautiful, long, tapering leaves with their pinnæ very regular in arrangement, forming a blade nearly open and flat. In general appearance it reminds one of Arechti more than of any other variety. The leaves are 12 feet or more in length, the rib moderately heavy, with a graceful taper, the base firm and heavy, strongly rounded dorsally, but little arched ventrally. This is decidedly a fine dry date, the equal of any from Algeria.

Meroë was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum. Not to be confused with Merowe, Meroë is a town in the Sudan that is the site of over 200 pyramids.

Sudan was already playing a role in world history as early as the first millennium BC. References to Kush are well known in Egyptian inscriptions and also in the works of Greek and Roman authors as well as in the bible. It would also be mistaken, in the final analysis, to view Kush merely as an Egyptian satellite, although it is true that the initial Egyptian conquest of the northern Sudan, during the time of the Middle Kingdom (c. 200 BC) had a profound effect upon Sudanese life and inspired the beginnings of indigenous development.

The modern historian is unfortunately forced to look at Kush through foreign historical references, and it seems reasonable that he should attempt to identify specifically non-Egyptian elements at Meroe and at Napata. Around 590 BC, the Kushan capital was moved to Meroe, a move which has stimulated the development of indigenous elements in the Kush culture. Inscriptions in the Meroitic language and alphabet became more common after this date, and in the sphere of arts and crafts the earlier Egyptian influence became subordinate to a forceful and unique style.

The ruins of the Meroë were noticed as long since as 1772 by the famous traveller James Bruce; but his identification was not generally accepted, and it was not till 1908 that Professor Sayce, in the course of an official inspection on behalf of the Sudan Government, rcognised that unquestionably they were the remains of Meroë, and invited Professor Garstang, then at rork in Egypt, to undertake the excavation. The Government of the Sudan encouraged the work by facilities and assistance, including the construction of a railway siding, the provision of water tanks, and materials. In this way the wants of 500 or 600 workmen were provided for. The camp became a stopping place for certain trains, which brought provisions, and it marks the site of a new station which became available to visitors.

The gates of the city opened, as it were, one by one before the ordered and methodical attack of the excavator's trained Arab workmen. Great temples, royal palaces, and public buildings emerged gradually from the sands; the city walls and gates and quays stood once more in their places; colossal statues, altars, and public monuments disclosed their whereabouts; the tombs yielded up their secrets; and numbers of small, artistic remains were trapped in the busy sieves.

In addition to the visible results, archæology has received some new and important contributions, for, until this work was undertaken, nothing was known of the subject of the Ethiopian civilisation from the specialist's point of view, and this fact naturally doubled the difficulties of an excavation of this kind. For this reason, primarily, the first experiments were made in the tombs and isolated knolls, as being the most accessible sources of information as to the character of ordinary Meroitic objects.

The tombs, being of unknown type and securely cemented down, for some time baffled the workmen, but at last the secret was won, and there came to light some thousands of vases--found, in some instances, as many as thirty or forty in a single tomb chamber. They were all of a style new and peculiar, without any noticeable trace of Egyptian influence. In the tombs furthest to the north vases of a special and rare kind were recovered made of thin pottery, decorated with paintings in colours (the subjects being animals, trees, or natural features), or with designs stamped upon the clay. Similar vases in more perfect state were found in 1911, among some ruined buildings in the west of the city area. In addition to pottery vessels there were in the tombs a variety of objects mot merely funerary in character.