Khartoum North Khartoum North Khartoum North or Bahri (, "al-Kharṭūm Baḥrī") is a neighborhood in the northern region of Khartoum, the capital of the Republic of Sudan. It is located on the north bank of the Blue Nile and east bank of River Nile near its confluence with the White and bridges connect it with Khartoum to its south and Omdurman to its west. It is thought to have a population of over a million, but the last Sudanese census occurred in 1993 when its population was only 900,000. The original settlement at Khartoum North, Halfaya, was long the largest settlement in
Khartoum recently as the 13th-17th centuries A.D. Captain J.A. Grant, who reached Khartoum in 1863 with Captain Speke's expedition, thought the name was most probably from the Arabic "qurtum" ( ', i.e., "Carthamus tinctorius"), which was cultivated extensively in Egypt for its oil to be used as fuel. Some scholars speculate that the word derives from the Nubian word, "Agartum" ("the abode of Atum"), the Nubian and Egyptian god of creation. Other Beja scholars suggest "Khartoum" is derived from the Beja word, "Hartoom" ("meeting"). Additionally, the dream-interpreting magicians in Genesis 41:8 are referred to as חַרְטֻמֵּ֥י מצרים("Khartoumei Mitzrayim" - Magicians of