Gondokoro

Gondokoro (formerly Ismailïa) island is located in Central Equatoria. The island was a trading station on the east bank of the White Nile in Southern Sudan, south of Khartoum. Its importance lay in the fact that it was within a few kilometres of the limit of navigability of the Nile from Khartoum upstream. From this point the journey south to Uganda was continued overland.

thumb|Gondokoro in 1862, photograph by Alexine Tinne The Austrian Catholic missionary Ignatius Knoblecher set up a mission there in 1852. It was abandoned in 1859. In 1862, the explorer Alexine Tinne became the first person to photograph the town. Gondokoro was the scene for the arrival of John Hanning Speke and James Augustus Grant after their two years and five months long journey through Central Africa from Zanzibar. They arrived exhausted on February 13, 1863, and expected to be met by the British consul John Petherick and his rescue party. As Petherick was away hunting in the countryside, the two explorers instead were welcomed by Samuel Baker and his wife Florence Baker, who greeted them with a cup of tea.