Khartoum lies at the confluence of the Blue Nile and White Nile rivers.
The Blue Nile flows northwest from Lake Tana in Ethiopia, while the White Nile’s main headwaters are associated with the Lake Victoria basin. They meet in central Sudan at a place known as al-Mogran, after which the combined river continues north as the Nile toward Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.
Khartoum’s location made it strategically important. Muhammad Ali Pasha founded the city in 1821, and it later became the administrative centre of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The city is also remembered for the Siege of Khartoum in 1884–1885 during the Mahdist War. Sudan retained Khartoum as its capital after independence in 1956.
A common mix-up is confusing Khartoum with Omdurman or Khartoum North. These are closely connected cities in the Greater Khartoum metropolitan area, but the famous river meeting point is beside Khartoum proper. Addis Ababa is Ethiopia’s capital, while Juba is South Sudan’s capital.