Khartoum (state)
Khartoum State () is one of the eighteen states of Sudan. Although it is the smallest state by area (22,142 km), it is the most populous (5,274,321 in 2008 census). It contains the country's second largest city by population, Omdurman, and the city of Khartoum, which is the capital of the state as well as the national capital of Sudan. The capital city contains offices of the state, governmental and non-governmental organizations, cultural institutions, and the main airport.
History of Sudan
By the seventh millennium BC, people of a [[Neolithic]] culture had settled into a sedentary way of life there in fortified [[mud-brick]] villages, where they supplemented [[hunting]] and [[fishing]] on the Nile with [[grain]] gathering and [[cattle]] herding. During the fifth millennium BC migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed social hierarchy over the next centuries become the Kingdom of Kush (with the capital at [[Kerma]]) at 1700 BC. Anthropological and archaeological research indicate that during the predynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were ethnically, and culturally nearly identical, and thus, simultaneously evolved systems of pharaonic kingship by 3300 BC. Together with other countries on [[Red Sea]], [[Sudan]] is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient [[Egyptians]] as "[[Land of Punt|Punt]]" (or "Ta Netjeru", meaning "God's Land"), whose first mention dates to the 25th century BC.