Khartoum: Jewel Of The Desert

KHARTOUM, SUDAN - JANUARY 11, 2007: An indoor general view of the Turkish/Sudanese owned Afra shopping mall on January 11, 2007 in Khartoum, Sudan. Afra Mall is the first shopping mall in Sudan. Opened on February 21, 2004, the mall has an area of 30,000 meters square with an indoor and outdoor parking facility, as well as an outdoor childrens playground. Afra Mall features department stores, a hypermarket superstore, 3 movie theatres, food court, internet cafe, pool tables and bowling hall. Stores feature footwear, clothing, electronics, beauty salons and a currency exchange facility while the food court offers a diverse menu including Middle Eastern, Chinese, Turkish and Italian food. With economics sanctions, all transactions are handled in cash only. Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, lies at the point where both the Blue and the White Nile converge and in recent years has been best known for the political turmoil which stems from it's government. Within this war torn city lays the largest commercial construction site in Africa known as Al Mogran Project, which spans 1,500 acres, at a place known as Alsunut from the name of its nearby forest. With the help of foreign Chinese workers, the Sudanese Alsunut Development Company LTD, owned by the Dal Group - the first industrial group of the country, are working furiously to develop a new Dubai which is to become the commercial and financial headquarters of Islamist East Africa. The site is to include multiple modern office towers, duplexes and golf courses. The project is to cost USD $4billion and is scheduled to house both the headquarters of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company as well as Petrodar, both of which are Chinese, Malaysian, Indian and Sudanese joint venture oil companies and is due to be complete within the next five to fifteen years. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)