Mud-brick houses line an irrigation canal in the fertile land between the White and Blue Niles known as the Gezira. (The Arabic word Gezira means “island” or “peninsula.”) This region, south of Khartoum, is irrigated by the Sennar Dam and the irrigation canals built there since 1925, and is Sudan's leading agricultural area by far, with more than 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) under cultivation. The entire project was nationalized in 1950.