Sudan (region) to the present-day country of Sudan, the western part of which forms part of the larger region, and from which South Sudan gained its independence in 2011. The Sudan region extends in some 5,000 km in a band several hundred kilometers wide across Africa. It stretches from the border of Senegal, through southern Mali (formerly known as French Sudan when it was a French colony), Burkina Faso, southern Niger, northern Nigeria, northern Ghana, southern Chad, the western Darfur region of present-day Sudan, and South Sudan. To the north of the region lies the Sahel, a more arid Acacia savanna region
French Colonial but continued to be built after Spain assumed control of the colonial territory in 1763. Styles of building that evolved during the French colonial period include the Creole cottage, Creole townhouse, and French Creole plantation house. There are some colonial buildings as France's legacy in the area, dating back to the 19th- and 20th-century French Indochina colony. Most of them are located in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh. Saigon (present-day Ho Chi Minh City) and Hanoi, as the capitals of Indochina, respectively, in 1887–1902 and 1902-1945, present the most exceptional and among the best-preserved French Colonial buildings