page_title: Suakin
section_title: Ottoman
hierarchical_section_title: Suakin / History / Ottoman
caption_attribution_description: English: In 1928 the city of Suakin situated at the Red Sea Coast of Sudan, was a wonderful place with many historical buildings. Deutsch: Noch 1928 war die Stadt Sawakin am der Rote Meer Küste des Sudan ein wunderbarer Ort mit vielen historischen Bauten.
context_page_description: Suakin or Sawakin is a port city in northeastern Sudan, on the west coast of the Red Sea, it was formerly the region's chief port, but is now secondary to Port Sudan, about 50 kilometres north.
  Suakin used to be considered the height of medieval luxury on the Red Sea, but the old city built of coral is now in ruins. In 1983 it had a population of 18,030 and the 2009 estimate is 43,337. Ferries run daily from Suakin to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
context_section_description: In 1517, the Ottoman sultan Selim I added the port to the territory of the Ottoman Empire, and after a brief occupation by the Funj, it was thereafter the residence of the pasha of the Ottoman province of Habesh. The Ottomans restored the two main mosques - Shafii and Hanafi, strengthened the walls of the fort and built new roads and buildings. As the Portuguese explorers discovered and perfected the sea route around Africa and the Ottomans were unable to stop this trade, the local merchants began to abandon the town.
  Some trade was kept up with the Sultanate of Sennar, but by the 18th and 19th centuries, the Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt found two-thirds of the homes in ruin. The Khedive Isma'il received Suakin from the Ottomans in 1865 and attempted to revitalize it: Egypt built new houses, mills, mosques, hospitals, even a church for immigrant Copts.
caption: Suakin in 1928
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