Hunting empire treasures in Sudan market

“You can find anything, even from the British time”

Andrew Heavens is a reporter and photographer who has worked with Reuters since 2005, first from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and now Khartoum, Sudan. His African career followed 10 years of reporting for newspapers in Britain and the United States. In the following story, he describes a visit to Sudan's huge and historic Omdurman Market.

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The shelves of Mahjoub Mahmoud's market shop glint with piles of broken watches, coins and dented silver plates.

"See this here. It is very old. It is your king," he says, holding up a tarnished metal disc. It is actually not my king -- it is my grandfather's king -- Great Britain's King George VI, stamped on the front of a World War Two service medal and mine for an asking price of 100 Sudanese pounds ($50). Read more

[Hello]

If you had the choice of eating a mango or a piece of silver history...what would you choose? How much property could you buy for 50 dollars?