Kassala

Kassala lies in eastern Sudan below the Taka Mountains, a cluster of smooth granite domes that rise abruptly out of flat scrub and give the town its skyline. Fruit gardens watered by the seasonal Gash river make it the country's orchard, and its market sells mangoes, grapefruit and Rashaida silverwork. The Khatmiyya mosque sits at the foot of the rocks, roofless since a flood but still a place of pilgrimage. Rashaida and Beja people from the surrounding desert come in to trade, and the tea gardens under the domes fill in the late afternoon.