Shendi

Shendi or Shandi (شندي) is a small city in northern Sudan, situated on the southeastern bank of the Nile River 150 km northeast of Khartoum. Shandi is also about 45 km southwest of the ancient city of Meroë. Located in the River Nile state, Shandi is the center of the Ja'alin tribe and an important historic trading center. Its principal suburb on the west bank is Matamma. A major traditional trade route across the Bayuda Desert connects Matamma to Merowe and Napata, 250 km to the northwest. The city is the historical capital of the powerful Arabised Nubian Ja'alin tribe whom most of its denizens belong to. The village of Hosh Bannaga, where former President Omar al-Bashir's hometown is, is located on the outskirts of the city. The narrations and interpretations differed about the meaning of the word “Shendi” and the reason for naming the city with it. Sudan in the sixth century and thereafter constitutes a large market slavery in which the trade exchange takes place in cash, but it is likely that the name was used for this site since the Kingdom of Meroe, as Shendi was a known and existing human gathering before The rise of the Christian kingdoms in Sudan, and the question also revolves around the origin of the ancient Nubian language from which it was derived, and there is no evidence that the ancient Shendi market was limited to the slave trade, and whether that trade was done with money or by barter. According to another version that goes by the same doctrine, the word Shendi is an old Nubian word that has been distorted and means “lip” because it falls in the bend of the Nile River, which is similar to the shape of the lips. But the shape of the bend of the Nile in the region can only be seen through aerial photography, which was not possible when the city was established.