Khartoum

Khartoum, the most populous town of the Eastern Soudan, is situated a little above the union of the Blue and the White Nile, 445 miles S.W. of Suakim. It is situated on the great caravan route to Central Africa, and has long been notorious as a centre of the slave trade. During the war with the Mahdi (1884-85) it was gallantly held by General Charles George Gordon (q.v.), who was slain, with the rest of the garrison, two days before the arrival of an army of relief (Jan. 26, 1885).