Shendi in the context of Napata

Meroë (/ˈmɛroʊiː/; also spelled Meroe; Meroitic: 𐦨𐦡𐦷𐦡𐦥𐦢, romanized: Medewi; Arabic: مرواه, romanized: Meruwah and مروي, Meruwi; Ancient Greek: Μερόη, romanized: Meróē) was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum. Near the site is a group of villages called Bagrawiyah (Arabic: البجراوية). This city was the capital of the Kingdom of Kush for several centuries from around 590 BC, until its collapse in the 4th century AD. The Kushitic Kingdom of Meroë gave its name to the "Island of Meroë", which was the modern region of Butana, a region bounded by the Nile (from the Atbarah River to Khartoum), the Atbarah and the Blue Nile.

The city of Meroë was on the edge of Butana. There were two other Meroitic cities in Butana: Musawwarat es-Sufra and Naqa. The first of these sites was given the name Meroë by the Persian king Cambyses, in honor of his sister who was called by that name. The city had originally borne the ancient appellation Saba, named after the country's original founder. The eponym Saba, or Seba, is named for one of the sons of Cush (see Genesis 10:7). The presence of numerous Meroitic sites within the western Butana region and on the border of Butana proper is significant to the settlement of the core of the developed region. The orientation of these settlements exhibit the exercise of state power over subsistence production.

Hosh Bannaga (Arabic: حوش بانقا, romanized: Ḥawsh Bānaqā) is a village located in the outskirts of Shendi on the east bank of the Nile River in the River Nile state, around 150 kilometres north of the capital Khartoum. It is the birthplace of former President Omar al-Bashir.

Wad ben Naga (also Wad Ban Naqa or Wad Naga) is the name of an ancient town in the Kushitic Kingdom in present-day Sudan. The village lies on the eastern bank of the Nile, about 80 kilometers upstream of Meroë and about 40 km southwest of Shendi.

Isma'il Kamil Pasha (Egyptian Arabic: إسماعيل كامل باشا, romanized: Ismā‘īl Kamil Bāshā; 1795 – 1822) was the third son of Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt, and the leader of the campaign he sent in 1820, to annex Sudan. He was burned to death in a plot prepared for him by Mek Nimr, the Ja'ali King of Shendi, in 1822, in response to an insult directed at him by Ismail, rebuking him for the people of Shendi revolting and attacking slave convoys heading to Egypt.