The principal library is at the University of Khartoum, with 350,000 volumes. The library at the Institute of Education in Bakhter Ruda has 28,000 volumes; the Khartoum Polytechnic collection has 30,000; and the Educational Documentation Center, also in Khartoum, has 20,000 volumes. Minor library facilities are maintained by secondary schools, houses of worship, government agencies, and foreign community centers. The National Records Office, in Khartoum, serves as the national archives and contains over 20 million documents, including 13,000 bound volumes covering Sudanese history since 1870.
There are antiquities museums in Khartoum and Merowe, which is also the site of excavations of buildings from the kingdom of Kush. The Khalifa's tomb in Omdurman contains relics of Mahdist and other recent history. The National Botanic Garden in Khartoum contains rare specimens of Sudanese flora. Khartoum also has an ethnographic museum, a natural history museum, and the Sudan National Museum. There are also museums at Al Ubayyid, Port Sudan, Wadi Halfa', Wad Madani, Merowe, Omdurman, and other locations. A long and difficult civil war has put many of these institutions in danger.