Lying between the Nile and the Atbara was the Butana, grassland suitable for livestock. Along the Atbara and the adjacent Gash Delta (near Kassala) many Christian sites have been noted. According to Ibn Hawqal, a vassal king loyal to Alodia governed the region around the Gash Delta. In fact, much of the Sudanese-Ethiopian-Eritrean borderlands, once under control of the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum, appear to have been under Alodian influence. The accounts of both Ibn Hawqal and al-Aswani suggest that Alodia also controlled the desert along the Red Sea coast.