Wadi Abu Dom

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The Wadi Abu Dom is a wadi in Sudan. It rises in the central Bayuda flows mainly in western and west-north - westerly direction and ends at the ancient city of Sanam, now a part of Merowe, in the Nile. The Wadi Abu Dom leads today only very irregular water (most recently in the summer of 2009).

Most of the Wadisystems leads through a desert landscape, only the actual Wadilauf has an acacia and Tundub vegetation that serve the camel and goat herds of some nomadic groups as pasture. The lower reaches of the wadis, however, is marked by several fountains fed small oases where mainly sedentary farmers of vegetables and date cultivation live. Another common species of palm in this area is the Doumpalme, which has given its name to the Wadi.

In the course of Wadi Abu Dom, there are numerous archaeological sites, eg a large number of cemeteries of different time steps, especially the Kerma and Napatan era, the post- Meroitic period and the Middle Ages. Also finds of Paleo and Neolithic are common. Larger ruins are grouped mainly around the oasis of Wadi underflow, eg the monastery of Ghazali and the palatial systems Umm Ruweim, Quweib and Umm Khafour. The only previously known larger ruins in the upper reaches of the Wadi is probably to be addressed as well as stately residential building el- Tuweina.

The role of the Wadi Abu Dom as a historic cultural landscape is explored from an archaeological survey project of the University of Münster under the direction of Angelika Lohwasser since 2009.