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Sudan is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Ethiopia and Eritrea to the east, Kenya, Uganda and
the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south, the Central African Republic and Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest.
There is a marked difference between the climate, culture and geography of northern and southern Sudan. The far north consists
of the contiguous Libyan and Nubian deserts which extend as far south as the capital, Khartoum, and are barren except for
small areas beside the Nile River and a few scattered oases.This gives way to the central steppes which cover the country
between 15°N and 10°N, a region of short, coarse grass and bushes, turning to open savannah towards the south, largely flat
to the east but rising to two large plateaux in the west and south, the Janub Darfur (3,088m/10,131ft) and Janub Kordofan
(500m/1,640ft) respectively. Most of Sudan’s agriculture occurs in these latitudes in a fertile pocket between the Blue and
White Niles which meet at Khartoum. South of the steppes is a vast shallow basin traversed by the White Nile and its tributaries,
with the Sudd, a 120,000 sq km (46,332 sq miles) marshland, in the centre. This gives way to equatorial forest towards the
south, rising to jungle-clad mountains on the Ugandan border, the highest being Mount Kinyeti, at 3,187m (10,456ft).
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