Soba (city)

Soba is the former capital of the medieval Nubian kingdom of Alodia. E. A. Wallis Budge identified it with a group of ruins on the Blue Nile 19 kilometres (12 mi) from Khartoum, where there are remains of a Meroitic temple that had been converted into a Christian church. This would place Soba in the modern-day Sudanese state of Al Jazirah.

Ibn Selim el-Aswani described the city as large and wealthy, but he probably never visited it and modern archaeological investigations show it to have been a moderate centre. Built mainly of red brick, the abandoned city was plundered for building material when Khartoum was founded in 1821.

In this map, Soba is marked on the east bank of the Blue Nile river

Notes

Soba is commonly located on the east side of the Blue Nile river. It was once a Christian kingdom before being destroyed by Fong and Abdallab in 1509. There is confusion surrounding the location as most people think it was on the west bank of the Blue Nile river. The population of East Soba today are of the Magariba and Mahas tribe.

References

• William Y. Adams, Nubia: Corridor to Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977.