<Tr> <Th> ISO 3166 code </Th> <Td> SD </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Internet TLD </Th> <Td>. sd, سودان . </Td> </Tr> <P> The Sudan or Sudan (US: / suˈdæn / (listen), UK: / suˈdɑːn, - ˈdæn /; Arabic: السودان ‎ as - Sūdān) also known as North Sudan since South Sudan's independence and officially the Republic of the Sudan (Arabic: جمهورية السودان ‎ Jumhūriyyat as - Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa . It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west and Libya to the northwest . It houses 37 million people (2017) and occupies a total area of 1.861. 484 square kilometres (718.722 square miles), making it the third largest country in Africa . Sudan's predominant religion is Islam, and its official languages are Arabic and English . The capital is Khartoum, located at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile . </P> <P> The history of Sudan goes back to Antiquity, when the Meroitic - speaking Kingdom of Kush controlled northern and central Sudan and, for nearly a century, even Egypt . After its fall in the mid 4th century AD the Nubians formed the three Christian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia . While the Nubians managed to defeat the invading Rashidun Caliphate in 642 and 652 Muslim Arabs still began to settle in Sudan: first at the Sudanese Red Sea coast and the adjacent Eastern Desert and finally, in the 14th and 15th century, in the Nile Valley . After 1365 Makuria had largely collapsed, while Alodia was conquered in c. 1500 by either Arabs or the African Funj . </P>

What region of the world is sudan in