Wādī Ḥalfāʾ

Wadi Halfa

Wādī Ḥalfāʾ, town, extreme northern Sudan. It lies on the east bank of the Nile River 6 miles (10 km) below the Second Cataract, just south of the Egyptian border. Located within ancient Nubia, the town and its environs are rich in antiquities; the ruins of Buhen—an Egyptian colony of the Middle Kingdom period that existed until Roman times—lie across the river. A terminus of both railway and steamship lines, Wādī Ḥalfāʾ is an agricultural and commercial centre serving both Egypt and Sudan. In the 1970s it was the focus of archaeological activities to save Egyptian monuments from inundation by Lake Nasser (the reservoir formed above the Aswan High Dam), a fate that part of the town shared. Its populace was relocated at New Halfa to the southeast near Kassala town.