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( Sudan)
Sudan (officially the Republic of Sudan) (Arabic ??????? ?al-Sudan)[2] is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World,[3] and tenth largest in the world by area. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, Kenya and Uganda to the southeast, Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest. The country's name derives from the Arabic Bilad-al-Sudan, literally "land of the blacks."[2] Sudan has recently emerged as the world's most unstable country according to the 2007 Failed States Index, mainly due to its military dictatorship and the ongoing war in Darfur. The country has long been plagued by civil war stemming from political and economic inequality most people in Sudan's northern region, which includes the capital city of Khartoum, are Arab Muslims; while most southerners are non-Arab Black Africans who mainly practice traditional African religions or Christianity. Southern Sudan is widely acknowledged to have one of the worst health situations in the world.[4][5] Despite its internal conflicts, Sudan has managed to achieve economic growth. Archaeological evidence has confirmed that the area in the North of Sudan was inhabited at least 60,000 years ago[citation needed]. A settled culture appeared in the area around 8,000&_160;BC, living in fortified villages, where they subsisted on hunting and fishing, as well as grain gathering and cattle herding while also being shepherds. The area was known to the Egyptians as Kush and had strong cultural and religious ties to Egypt. In the 8th century&_160;BC, however, Kush came under the rule of an aggressive line of monarchs, ruling from the capital city, Napata, who gradually extended their influence into Egypt. About 750&_160;BC, a Kushite king called Kashta conquered Upper Egypt and became ruler of Thebes until approximately 740&_160;BC. His successor, Piankhy, subdued the delta, reunited Egypt under the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and founded a line of kings who ruled Kush and Thebes for about a hundred years. The dynasty's intervention in the area of modern Syria caused a confrontation between Egypt and Assyria. When the Assyrians in retaliation invaded Egypt, Taharqa (688-663&_160;BC), the last Kushite pharaoh, withdrew and returned the dynasty to Napata, where it continued to rule Kush and extended its dominions to the south and east. In 590&_160;BC, an Egyptian army sacked Napata, compelling the Kushite court to move to Meroe near the 6th cataract. The Meroitic kingdom subsequently developed independently of Egypt, and during the height of its power in the 2nd and 3rd centuries&_160;BC, Meroe extended over a region from the 3rd cataract in the north to Sawba, near present-day Khartoum (the modern day capital of Sudan).
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