Qualla: Republican Palace, Khartoum

Republican Palace, Khartoum: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew H. C., CC0. Two palaces share a single garden on the southern bank of the Blue Nile, and the story of Sudan is written between them. The Old Palace, in English Palladian style, rose on the stones of its Ottoman predecessor in 1899 - built for colonial governors-general who did not ask permission. The New Palace, a Chinese-funded Arabic-style complex, opened in 2015 for President Omar al-Bashir. Between the two buildings, separated by a hundred meters and a hundred and fifty years, sits the ghost of every Sudanese regime that rose and fell in Khartoum.

Image: Andrew H. C. | CC0

Republican Palace, Khartoum: The First Palace

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Amirasalih95, CC BY-SA 4.0. Before any of the stone buildings, there was a rectangular mud palace. Mahu Bey Urfali, the Hakimadar who governed for just ten months in 1825-26, raised it as the administrative seat of the newly-conquered Turco-Egyptian Sudan. The site was chosen for its position: less than a k...

Image: Amirasalih95 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Republican Palace, Khartoum: Gordon's Stairs

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit George W. Joy, Public domain. By the 26th of January 1885, the palace was a fortress waiting to fall. Inside, Charles Gordon had spent ten months directing the siege defense of Khartoum against the Mahdist army. When the Mahdists broke the walls before dawn that morning, accounts split on how he died. One ver...

Image: George W. Joy | Public domain

Republican Palace, Khartoum: January 1956

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0. The transition, when it came, was ceremonial. On 1 January 1956, at this palace, British and Egyptian flags came down from the staff. The Sudanese flag went up. Condominium rule - the awkward joint Anglo-Egyptian arrangement that had governed Sudan since the reconquest - ended no...

Image: David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada | CC BY 2.0

Republican Palace, Khartoum: Coups on the Lawn

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Amirasalih95, CC BY-SA 4.0. Every decade seemed to bring another military overthrow, and each time the cameras assembled at the same gate. In May 1969, Gaafar Nimeiry took power here. In April 1985, a coup against Nimeiry replaced him with a civilian government - Nimeiry, detained inside, managed to escape ...

Image: Amirasalih95 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Republican Palace, Khartoum: A Palace in Crossfire

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Amirasalih95, CC BY-SA 4.0. In April 2023, war came back to the palace grounds. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which had grown out of the Janjaweed of the Darfur conflict, seized the complex and most of central Khartoum. For nearly two years they held it while the Sudanese Armed Forces bombed and sh...

Image: Amirasalih95 | CC BY-SA 4.0