The ancient Egyptians knew Sudan as the Land of Cush-a source of great hidden treasures that made Sudan-the largest country in Africa-the object of invasion and exploration for much of its long and tumultuous history. This land that stretches from the Sahara to the Red Sea to the swamps of the Sudd, is a diverse and fascinating mélange, Yet today much of it remains unexplored-one of the last frontiers of travel.

November to March (the dry season)

Riding the ferris wheel Khartoum, from where you can see the two Niles, Blue and White, meet and meld after their lengthy journeys from the African hinterland Visiting the pyramids and hieroglyphs of Meroe, all that remains of Africa’s southern-most pharaohs Losing yourself in the atmospheric souqs (markets) and camel markets of Omdurman Getting dizzy from the spinning of the whirling dervishes of Halgt Zikr Wandering the melancholy ruins of abandoned Suakin, once a thriving Red Sea port full of coral houses

Read Tayeb Salih’s Seson of Migration to the North, a compelling tale of a Sudanese man torn between the West and his homeland; orEmma’s War by Deborah Scroggins, the true and moving story of a British aid-worker who married a Sudanese warlord

Listen to Abdel Gadir Salim’s Merdoum Kings-big band arrangements of Sudanese songs

Eat fuul (stewed brown beans), ta’amiya (the local equivalent of felafe), and fresh Nile perch

Drink shai (tea), always served and sometimes with mint, or coffee scented with cardamom and cinnamon

Tamam (good, well or right)

Bedouin in flowing robes; the untouched beauty of the Red Sea coast; Khartoum, a great city at the confluence of rivers amid the desert, Dinka, Nuer and Nuba tribespeople-tall and proud

Diverse landscapes and accompanying diverse cultures from the arid north to the lush and mountainous south; overwhelming hospitality-a national point of pride

People, on meeting, always carry out some form of greeting, even if relatively shot, and the most common is to enquire if all is tamam (well). The reply is almost inevitably a beaming smile and a convincing ‘tamam!’ To outsider perhaps a little oppressed by the evident difficulties of daily life for most Sudanese, it is testimony to these people’s capacity to be satisfied with what life gives, however little it may seem to a Westerner.