yet been discovered. While many Alodian sites are known, only the capital Soba has been extensively excavated. Parts of this site were unearthed in the early 1950s, further excavations taking place in the 1980s and 1990s. A new multidisciplinary research project is scheduled to start in late 2019. Soba is approximately in size and is covered with numerous mounds of brick rubble previously belonging to monumental structures. Discoveries made so far include several churches, a palace, cemeteries and numerous small finds. Geography Alodia was located in Nubia, a region which, in the middle ages, extended from Aswan in southern Egypt to an undetermined point south of the confluence of the White and Blue Nile rivers. The heartland of the kingdom was the Gezira, a fertile plain bounded by the White Nile in the west and the Blue Nile in the east. In contrast to the White Nile Valley, the Blue Nile Valley is rich in known Alodian archaeological sites, among them Soba. The extent of the Alodian influence to the south is unclear, although it is likely that it bordered the Ethiopian highlands. The southernmost known Alodian sites are in the proximity of Sennar. To the west of the White Nile, Ibn Hawqal differentiated between Al-Jeblien, which was controlled by Makuria and probably corresponded with northern Kordofan, and the Alodian-controlled Al-Ahdin, which has been identified with the Nuba Mountains, and perhaps extended as far south as Jebel al Liri, near the modern border to South Sudan. Nubian connections with Darfur have been suggested, but evidence is lacking. The northern region of Alodia probably extended from the confluence of the two Niles downstream to Abu Hamad near Mograt Island. Abu Hamad likely constituted the northernmost outpost of the Alodian province known as al-Abwab ("the gates"), although some scholars also suggest a more southerly location, nearer the Atbara River. No evidence for a major Alodian settlement has been discovered north of the confluence of the two Niles, although several forts have been recorded there. Lying between the Nile and the Atbara was the Butana, grassland suitable for livestock. Along the Atbara and the adjacent Gash Delta (near Kassala) many Christian sites have been noted. According to Ibn Hawqal, a vassal king loyal to Alodia governed the region around the Gash Delta. In fact, much of the Sudanese-Ethiopian-Eritrean borderlands, once under control of the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum, appear to have been under