Sudan is stepping up its tourism efforts, with the premier hotel of its capital city, Khartoum ─ Corinthia Hotel Khartoum ─ offering an accommodation saving in an effort to attract visitors to the untapped tourist market.
Having opened officially in August 2008, the Corinthia Hotel Khartoum is celebrating its tenth birthday with a nod in the direction of tourism. A city in flux, Khartoum is generally associated with half-finished construction sites, dry soil, and date palms growing out of concrete blocks. In the midst of this, however, the steel and glass hotel is a futuristic structure shaped like a ship’s sails.
Funded by the Libyan government and nicknamed ‘Gaddafi’s egg’, the hotel is centrally located and overlooks the confluence of the iconic Blue and White Nile Rivers. It has six world-class restaurants and cafés, including the city’s highest eatery ─ the Rickshaw Restaurant on the 18th floor.
According to the hotel, the birthday celebration package includes “accommodation in a room or suite, breakfast, complimentary Wi-Fi, access to the gym, pool and extensive leisure facilities including those inside the Sabratha Spa and Fitness Centre”.
Tourists to southern Sudan are able to enjoy river cruises on the Nile, and watch the Whirling Dervishes at sunset – a gathering of people who sing, chant and whirl in the dust wearing colourful patchwork clothes. The city also offers the Ethnographic and Archaeological Museums. The Royal Necropolis at Meroe is also a major attraction, where temples and over 200 pyramids are a resting place for the powerful Nubian pharaohs who once ruled Egypt.
Tourism to Sudan is growing slowly, with the country starting to be seen as an alternative to Egypt. Sudan boasts more pyramids than its northern counterpart – without the queues to visit them. Around 40 pyramids rise from the dunes at Meroe alone.
