Don'gola

Don'gola, NEW, called by its inhabitants Ordé, a town of Nubia, on the left bank of the Nile, above the third cataract, and about 750 miles S. of Cairo, with a citadel, and a population of about 10,000. Under Egyptian rule it became the capital of a province of the same name, embracing a district which had from early in the Christian era formed an independent kingdom; the population of the province was estimated at 250,000. In the operations against the Mahdi, in 1884-85, the town was employed by the British as a base; in March 1886 the British forces were withdrawn, and Don'gola fell into the possession of the Soudanese. Trade utterly decayed; and after the capture of the town and the reoccupation of the province in 1896 by the Anglo-Egyptian forces, the population was found to have fallen from 75,000 (1885) to 56,426.—OLD DONGOLA, 75 miles SSE., on the right bank of the Nile, was the capital of the kingdom, but was destroyed by the Mamelukes in 1820.