Darfur is mainly open, steppe-like country with extensive tracts of cultivable land and a central mountain massif, the Jebel Marra (see Sennar Kordofan, Darfur).
Farther west, in Darfur, the country is more elevated, the Jebel Marra range being from 5000 to 6000 ft.
Yusef was joined in 1887 by Sultan Zayid, the black ruler of Jebel Marra, and Karamallas trusted general, Ketenbur, was defeated with great slaughter at El Towaish on the 29th of June 1887.