The island town of Suakin, in north-eastern Sudan, was an important port for trade and culture on the East African coast for centuries. The town is located on a flat, oval-shaped island, on the west coast of the Red Sea, inside a narrow inlet that penetrates four kilometer inland and ends in a wide basin about two kilometers across. There are two round coral islands in the shallow basin. One of the islands is deserted and contains nothing but a cemetery. The other island to the south is the site of Suakin. The island is connected to the mainland by a short man-made causeway.

Once the principal port of Sudan, Suakin lost its importance when a new har­bor, Port Sudan, was built to the north in the beginning of the 20th century. Over the course of the century, Suakin slowly began to lose its population until it had turned into a ghost town.

Photo credit: Geoff Tompkinson