From Bornu he traveled to Baguirmi, an independent state to the southeast of Bornu. From there he proceeded to Wadai (a powerful Muslim kingdom to the northeast of Baguirmi) and to Kordofan (a former province of central Sudan). Nachtigal emerged from the Sahel at Khartoum (then an Egyptian outpost, today the capital of Sudan) in the winter of 1874, after having been given up for lost. His journey, described in his "Sahara and Sudan", placed him in the top ranking of discoverers. He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Gold Medal in 1882.