OCEANROAMERS

Port Sudan (Arabic: بورتسودان‎) is the capital of Red Sea State, Sudan and has 489,725 residents (2007). Located on the Red Sea, it is the Republic of Sudan's main port city.

Port Sudan was founded by the British in 1909 as the terminus of a rail line linking the Red Sea to the River Nile. It served as a new modern port to replace Sawakin. The railroad was used to transport the nation's cotton and sesame seed, as well as sorghum, from the agriculturally rich areas of the Nile valley to export markets.

Tourism
Port Sudan is known among tourists for its excellent scuba-diving and beaches. Tourists, as well as far larger numbers of Muslim pilgrims en route to undertake their once-in-a-lifetime Hajj to Mecca, use Port Sudan as a departure point to cross the Red Sea to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Economy

The harbor is in the mouth of a gulf continuing seaward through a coral-free channel 18–26 meters (60–85 ft) deep. Imports include machinery, vehicles, fuel oil, and building materials. Cotton, gum Arabic, oil seeds, hides and skins, and senna are the chief exports. Port Sudan has an oil refinery to handle the petroleum from onshore wells, as well as an oil pipeline to Khartoum that was completed in 1977.

A rail line links the Red Sea to the River Nile. The railroad was used to transport the nation's cotton and sesame seed from salt-evaporating pans.

Geography

Port Sudan has a near-desert climate, requiring the acquisition of fresh water from Wadi Arba'at in the Red Sea Hills and from salt-evaporating pans.

Demographics

The population, mainly Arab, includes the indigenous Beja, West Africans, and small minorities of Asians (mainly Chinese) and Europeans.