The Taka Mountains are the strange, smooth granite domes that rear out of the flat plain just east of Kassala — small in size but huge in presence, with sheer rock faces that the late afternoon light turns the colour of copper. Jebel Taka is the largest of the cluster and the most distinctive, recognisable from miles out across the Butana plain. The Beja people consider the range sacred.
The lower slopes can be climbed without ropes if you scramble through the rock cafes behind Khatmiya at the base. Higher up you need a local guide and proper grip. The view from any height is worth the effort — west over the city and the bone-dry bed of the Gash river, east across the border into Eritrea, with the distant blue Eritrean highlands on a clear day.
The hamadryas baboons that live in the rocks are easiest to see at dusk, when they come down to drink at the village wells around the base.