A train station in the desert between Wadi Halfa and Khartoum.

GOING TO KHARTOUM

On 31 January, the von Hallwyls board a train in Wadi Halfa to travel to Khartoum. This photograph appears to have been taken during a stop somewhere along the way.

On 2 February, the train has travelled the 900 kilometres, and Ida Uhse provides a description of Khartoum:
“It is very hot here. Construction of the hotel is being finished, and in time it will be a splendid place for the English. Khartoum is on the banks of the Nile. Up until now, the Mahdi, the feared dervish, had annihilated the cities and villages that would not submit. He has also been ravaging and destroying on the north bank of the Nile. The power of the Mahdi was ended by General Gordon in the battle of Omdurman in 1885."

As late as in 1898 there were conflicts between the British and the Mahdists in Sudan. From 1899 to 1956, the country was referred to as Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, as it was jointly governed by the United Kingdom and Egypt. In other words, the fighting had not been over for very long when the von Hallwyls decided to go to Khartoum.