Historic twin cities of Merca and Barawa

MERCA
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Merca (Somali: Marka, Arabic: مركة‎) is a port city on the coast of southern Somalia, facing the Indian Ocean. It is the main town in the Lower Shabele region, and is located approximately 70 km (45 miles) southwest of the nation's capital, Mogadishu. The city of Merka was one of several prominent administrative centers in the Ajuuraan Empire. - Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merca)


See City gallery (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1308919)

BARAWA
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Barawa or Brava (Somali: Baraawe) is a port town on the south-eastern coast of Somalia. The traditional inhabitants are the Tunni Somalis and the Bravanese people, who speak Bravanese, a Swahili dialect. In the 16th century, Barawa, which was then part of the Ajuuraan Empire, was sacked by the Portuguese during the Battle of Barawa but quickly recovered from the attack. - Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barawa)

See City gallery (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1308935&highlight=)

Castle complex of Taleex

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The Dervish State was an early 20th century Somali Sunni Muslim state that was established by Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, a religious leader who gathered Somali soldiers from across the Horn of Africa and united them into a loyal army known as the Dervishes. This Dervish army enabled Hassan to carve out a powerful state through conquest of lands claimed by the Somali Sultans, the Ethiopians and the European powers. The Dervish State acquired renown in the Islamic and Western worlds due to its resistance against the European empires of Britain and Italy. The Dervish forces successfully repulsed the British Empire in four military expeditions, and forced it to retreat to the coastal region. As a result of its fame in the Middle East and Europe, the Dervish State was recognized as an ally by the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire. It also succeeded at outliving the Scramble for Africa, and remained throughout World War I the only independent Muslim power on the continent. After a quarter of a century of holding the British at bay, the Dervishes were finally defeated in 1920, when Britain for the first time in Africa used aeroplanes to bomb the Dervish capital of Taleex.

Capital

The Sayyid during his campaigns against the European and local powers built fortresses all over the Horn of Africa, and would move his armies from one city to another. In 1913, after the British withdrawal to the coast, the permanent capital and headquarters of the Dervishes was constructed at Taleh, a large walled town with fourteen fortresses. The main fortress, Silsilat, included a walled garden and a guard house. It became the residence of Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, his wives, family, prominent Somali military leaders, and also hosted several Turkish, Yemeni and German dignitaries, architects, masons and arms manufacturers. A large area to the northeast of Taleh was used for cultivation, while the Dar Ilalo towers were used as granaries. Several tombs were constructed by Muhammad Abdullah Hassan to honor his father, mother and prominent members from northern and southern Somalia. However, those that committed acts of treason, crimes or who had otherwise fallen out with the Dervish leader were sent to Hed Kaldig, the main execution arena.Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervish_State)

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Great thread idea, saxiib.

Stone city of Gondershe

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Gondershe is an historical Somali stone city built on an oasis in southern Somalia. The city's ruins consist of typical Somali architecture such as coral stone houses, fortifications, tombs and mosques. It is said to date from the Ajuuraan period, when it became a center of trade that handled smaller vessels sailing from India, Arabia, Persia and the Far East. Gondershe was also a popular tourist attraction during the 1970s and 1980s in Somalia. In addition, the film La Conchiglia (1992) by the award-winning Somali filmmaker Abdulkadir Ahmed Said was shot here, and features the town's local residents. - Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondershe)


http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom583.jpghttp://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom584.jpghttp://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom534.jpghttp://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom538.jpghttp://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom536.jpg

Medieval Somali doors, and window frames

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Carving, known in Somali as qoris, is a much respected profession in Somalia both in historic and modern times. Many wealthy urbanites in the medieval period regularly employed the finest wood and marble carvers in Somalia to work on their interiors and houses. The carvings on the mihrabs and pillars of ancient Somali mosques are some of the oldest on the continent. Artistic carving was considered the province of men similar to how the Somali textile industry was mainly a women's business. Amongst the nomads, carving, especially woodwork, was widespread and could be found on the most basic objects such as spoons, combs and bowls, but it also included more complex structures such as the portable nomadic house, the aqal. In the last several decades, traditional carving of windows, doors and furniture has taken a backseat to the introduction of workshops employing electrical machinery which deliver the same results in a far shorter time period. - Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_art)

Traditional Somali Wedding gifts

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Mosques, Towers, Shrines and Lighthouses

Ithna Asheri Mosque, Mogadishu
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13th century Arba Rukuun Mosque, Mogadishu
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17th century Hafun Mosque
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Zeila Mosque
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Berbera Mosque
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15th century Almnara Tower, Mogadishu
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Ancient-Almnara.jpg



to be continued...

Spot #8 reserved.

(To the Somali members (and others), please refrain from posting images or heritage sites in this topic. I have a clear road map that will cover the entire country, thank you!)

The Weaver's Song
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Written by Lark Ellen Gould

Photographed by Ilene Perlman

Omar Dahir Ali wakes each morning to the predawn call to prayer and thanks God for giving him a trade that has stood the test of time. As his wives prepare tea and injera, or maize pancakes, for breakfast, Omar winds sized cotton thread onto a hand-fashioned spindle. His grandson crawls around his lap grasping at loose strands. Omar then sets off for the workshop, where he seats himself on the edge of a pit in the earthen floor, adjusts his wooden loom and sets his feet on its wood-and-rope treadles on the floor of the pit. In contentment, he sings a song. It is the song of his fathers and his fathers' fathers and he will one day teach it to his grandson. It is the simple, humble weaver's song of victory - victory over poverty and starvation.

Somalia, a country of eight million people and 10 million camels, traditionally counts as its wealth that which can be corralled or worn or carried. Nomads in cotton skirts and hide sandals walk their country's principal export, livestock, from one green patch to another, ever wandering the parched Somali deserts. Along the southern coast, however, some of the country's few settled inhabitants still eke out an existence today in what was Somalia's first industry and remains one of her enduring art forms: cloth weaving.

Old Mogadishu
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In 1330, the Arab traveler Ibn Battuta wrote of Somalia's thriving cloth industry: "In this place [Benaadir] are manufactured the unequalled woven fabrics named after it, which are exported from there to Egypt and elsewhere."

A crossroads between Africa and the Middle East, Somalia was a pivot-point of trade, linking ports from Egypt to India. Her capital of Mogadishu sits on the Indian Ocean, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the Gulf of Aden and equidistant from Cairo, Baghdad and the trading cities of India's southwestern coast. It was once a major entrepôt of the trade in spices, slaves, hides, aromatic gums, ivory and textiles. The Jubaland Plain, between the Juba and Shebele Rivers that rise in Ethiopia, gave Somalia riches of papayas, grapefruits, bananas, mangoes and, above all, cotton.

Even in the 19th century, a French geographer estimated, one out of every five persons in Mogadishu was a weaver. The fields of the Jubaland Plain were polka-dotted with cotton plants, and Somalis produced over 350,000 pieces of cloth annually from the fertile ground. Because the ginning and weaving processes traditionally fell to lower-caste Somali tribes, the product was cheap enough to export successfully to countries like India, Egypt, and Kenya. The white cloth was also the Somali national dress: One length of it, known in traders' Arabic as futa, wrapped every man's waist as a long skirt, with another shorter piece, called go, draped the torso like a shawl. Women wore a long wrap called guntino.

By the last decade of the last century, however, the white futa Benaadiri had been completely replaced by merikan, a grey sheeting manufactured by the United States to the dimensions of the Somali skirt. A length of it sold for one Maria Theresa thaler, and soon became interchangeable with that coin, developing into a kind of money known as cloth currency.

The introduction of European-style clothing by the Italian colonists, and a drop in the world cotton market that made production and transportation of merikan very competitive with indigenous industries, were abstract market forces that led to the near-eradication of futa Benaadiri But recent research also suggests an attempt by wealthy Indian merchants to drive out the local cloth and capture the intermediary trade.

Today, as a result, Somalia's southern ports of Merca and Brava no longer bustle with commerce, and their medieval fortifications crumble in the wind and tides.Today, only about 1,500 weavers nationwide carry on the trade that once flourished throughout the towns of the Benaadir Coast, struggling quietly against the onslaught of mass-produced synthetics. In steaming alleys away from the main thoroughfares - where local merchants today display sparkling textiles from Korea and Japan - the weaver's cooperatives silently sell their handmade products, moving their inventory slowly and patiently. So far, the weavers have survived, against the odds.

They have survived because, resourcefully, they introduced design and color into their weaving, developing - or discovering - a new, substantial market among their own people.

Using locally grown vegetable dyes such as saffron and imported dyed yarns from India and Pakistan, Somali weavers began in the late 1950's to weave brilliant reds, blues, yellows, blacks, and purples into their futas and guntinos, giving their people traditional cloths to use for marriages, funerals, furniture, war dancing, and everyday farming. Weavers invented dozens of patterns with names like "teeth" and "goats in the sand dunes" that have become standards and today are worn in major ceremonies and the religious festivities that keep the national spirit of this Islamic stronghold alive.

Although Somali weavers count themselves among the employed, their existence is a meager one and they live today, as they always have, among the country's poorest. The thick, coarse cotton grown in the Somali grasslands is frequently rejected for the finer and softer threads bought in now from India and Pakistan with coveted hard currency. The weavers must buy their thread at painful prices from merchants to whom they seem ever in debt.

Omar Dahir Ali, 56, had been weaving since he was a boy of 15. But, in the 1970s, the weaving stopped. Amid political chaos and war, wealthy merchants cornered the cotton market and drove prices up to levels the weavers could not afford.

"At that time, we were building houses to earn our living," said Omar, who even today earns less than 300 Somali shillings for every 750- by 75-centimeter (24- by 2½ foot) futa he brings to the cooperative shop. At the official rate that equals less than three dollars a length. Working swiftly with the nimble fingers of experience, Omar can weave one skirt a day, and working every day but Friday he brings home under $18 a week. As the price of a decent meal in the simplest Somali cafe is easily 200 shillings, or two dollars, Omar depends on the budgeting talents of his two wives to feed his family.

Omar now walks each morning to a cooperative workshop that has 32 pit looms, electric light, windows on the sea, and a roof that keeps the rain off. Its comfort and convenience are a far cry, he says, from stretching his yarns around the walls of his house, and running from the rain that used to flood the pit in his home workplace - but the weaving methods are the same.

The weaver first takes the dyed yarn in 24 batches of eight-meter (26-foot) lengths, each tied together and marked with spittle and kohl. He dunks them into a sizing of flour and water to make the fibers stiff and strong. Then, in a stretching method called darisi, the threads are wrapped from one strategically placed vertical stick in the building to another, and left to dry like a long L-shaped blanket. When the yarn has dried, it is wound onto a wooden spindle called the furfure, then unwound and tied into the heddle loops, following the color pattern indicated by loose strings on the bamboo heddle.

The weaver affixes the heddle to the loom and stretches the threads of the new warp out behind the loom to a single iron hook set in the floor seven and a half to eight meters (24 to 26 feet) away. There all the warp threads are gathered into one fat knot, tied to a length of rope, and attached to the hook. The other end of the rope is led back to the weaver's seat. As weaving progresses and cloth is wound onto the cloth beam, the warp is fed toward the loom, anchoring it to the hook each time with a new knot farther down the rope.

When the futa is finished it is delivered to the cooperative store, where the weaver receives his shillings along with new thread for the next length of cloth. The store sells the products for 1,500 to 2,000 Shillings each ($15 to $20) - though at that price, Benaadiri cloth for futas and guntinos is longer an inexpensive alternative to imported cloth. It faces competition not only from Tanzanian kitenge cloth and polyesters imported from the Far East, but even from modern Somali industry.

Fifty kilometers (30 miles) outside Mogadishu is the Somaltex factory, whose 154 automated looms work 14 hours a day, turning out nearly 14 million meters (about 15 million yards) of cloth annually - almost enough to reach from New York to Mogadishu. The Somaltex futas vary in thickness, color, and design and sell for approximately 800 shillings ($8); most shops in the marketplace stock them as well as the imported polyesters. The latter, although impractical in the tropical heat, easily torn and expensive, seem to have captured the taste of Somali women by their bright patterns and varied textures.

But in response to this challenge too, Somali weavers are raising their resourceful heads and refusing to disappear. To meet the challenge of changing fashion they are helping to change the way women wear their cloth.

Two new shops opened in Mogadishu this year, both bent on making futa Benaadiri the biggest thing since Benetton sweaters. At a fashion show last spring, Somali designer Amena Egal sent three models walking through the crowds in a debut of sun, business, and party dresses all made from traditional Benaadir wedding and war cloths. In her store, Garri Bila, Amena sells her fashions for the equivalent of $40 to $60. "We're not changing the tradition of Benaadiri cloth," she explains. "We're just bringing it up to date. Instead of wearing it in the fields or as a guntino, we're making it more western to appeal to the tastes of women today. Somalia is no longer just a society of nomads wandering around the desert. Somalis are coming to the city and their fashion has to reflect their change of lifestyle."

To keep their craft alive, the weavers may have to change too, even beyond bowing to people's tastes in colors and patterns, says Abdirahim Hussein, who heads the Somali Weavers Cooperatives for the National Somali Cooperatives Union. Weavers are requested to break out of their futa mindframe and create napkins, placemats, table" cloths, pillowcases and curtains from their weaves. Hotels are offering contracts and boutique owners are ordering custom designs. The business is out there, Abdirahim says, the weavers just have to bend enough to pick it up.

"There are problems," he adds. "The loom in the hole, for instance. The white thread gets dirty and the width of the cloth is limited by the weaver's arm reach. The fiber is often not tight enough. I see room for improvement if only by raising the loom off the ground."

Getting the weavers to change their styles and dimensions is an obstacle that can be overcome without harming the traditions of the nation's first industry, Abdirahim says, "These people are weavers for generations. They must weave. We're not trying to change the pattern of their lives. We're trying to change the uses of their trade."

So the Somali weavers' song is not yet a swan song. Steadfast and adaptable, he shuttles weft into warp with whatever thread he has available, and keeps his feet firmly in the pit beneath his loom, whether it is in his own house or in a cooperative workshop. The thread does come, alham-dulillah - praise God. His loom remains full and his family fed.

Edward A. Alpers, professor of history at the University of California at Los Angeles, wrote that "it would probably not be entirely inappropriate to repeat earlier concerns that the weavers of futa Benaadiri face an uncertain future. Futa Benaadiri is no longer an inexpensive alternative to imported cloths and as a prestige textile it faces competition from Tanzanian kitenge and similar stuffs. its ability to endure for more than seven centuries, and particularly to make radical adjustments that historical circumstances have forced upon it over the past century, suggest strongly that it will continue to survive."

Lark Ellen Gould, a journalist specializing in political affairs in the Horn of Africa, lives in Massachusetts. - [b]The Weaver's Song (http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198905/the.weaver.s.song.htm)

Medieval city of Maduna

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Maduna (Somali: Maduuna) is an old Somali city 90 km southward of Erigavo. The structures consist of several hundred drystone buildings and a large retangular mosque whose walls were originally rendered with lime plaster. The city is said to date from the Golden Age of the Adal Sultanate, which was in the 15th and 16th centuries. - Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maduna)


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Nice thread. Somalia is still a relatively understudied region. More archaeological work has to be done. I'm pretty sure that the oldest human remains can be found somewhere in Somalia. :)

Amazing thread Constantine! Such thread was needed...Somalia has an amazing heritage. And not much archaeological works have been undertaken.

I had no idea so much history exists in Somalia. I'll check back frequently.

Ruins of Las Khorey Palace
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Old Bandar Qassim Castle
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Alula Fortress
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Mogadishu Palace
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Throughout the medieval era, castles and fortresses known as Qalcads were built by Somali Sultans for protection against both foreign and domestic threats. The major medieval Somali power engaging in castle building was the Ajuuraan State, and many of the hundreds of ruined fortifications dotting the landscapes of Somalia today are attributed to Ajuuraan engineers. Other castle building powers were the Gerad Kingdom and the Bari Sultanate. The many castles and fortresses such as the Sha'a Castle, the Bandar Qassim Castles and the Botiala Fortress Complex and dozens of others in towns such as Qandala, Bosaso and Las Khorey were built under their rule. - Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalian_architecture#Castles_and_fortresses)

Lovely topic, You've posted a few images I've never seen before, cant wait to see what else you've got instore for us all :banana:

Historic city of Zeila.

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(Sanctuary of Ibrahim Zeilici)

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Grotto galleries show early Somali life

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A Somali archaeologist pointing to an ancient rock painting, one of a galaxy of colourful animal and human sketches to adorn the caves in the rocky hills of this arid wilderness in northern Somalia, in Laas Geel, home to Africa's earliest known and most pristine rock art.

Some of the cave paintings in Somalia date back 5,000 years or more .

LAAS GEEL: A galaxy of colourful animal and human sketches adorn the caves in the rocky hills of this arid wilderness in northern Somalia, home to Africa’s earliest known and most pristine rock art.

But in a region ravaged by two decades of relentless civil unrest and lawlessness, the archaeological site is at risk of destruction, looting and clandestine excavation.

The 10 caves in Laas Geel, Somali for “camel watering hole”, outside Hargeisa, the capital of Somalia’s self-declared Somaliland state, show vivid depictions of a pastoralist history dating back some 5,000 years or more.

The paintings were discovered in 2002 by a French archaeology team and have since been protected to bar looters after their value became apparent to locals who previously feared they were the work of evil spirits.

“The people around here thought the caves had evil spirits and never used to come near. They offered sacrifices not to be harmed,” recounted Ali Said, an assistant archaeologist with the Somaliland government.

The cave galleries provide a peek into the little known history of this part of the world, which in recent times has mostly been famous for bloody conflicts and instability.

Paintings of decorated cows – some with radiant neck stripes – herders and wild animals point to the interglacial period when the now arid Horn of Africa region was lush and had plenty of wild animals, explained Sada Mire, a Somali-born British archaeologist working to preserve the rare heritage. - Source (http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8903624-grotto-galleries-show-early-somali-life)

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There's a massive dervish castle in Eyl, still in continuous use by the local administration, you can find the pictures on Panoramio, you should look into it.

There's a massive dervish castle in Eyl, still in continuous use by the local administration, you can find the pictures on Panoramio, you should look into it.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Dervish era Fortress of Eyl

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Medieval quarters of Mogadishu
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Mogadishu - Ming Dynasty trade description:
"Going from Xiao Gelan [Kulam] with a favourable wind one can reach this country in twenty days. It is on the sea-coast. The walls are piles of stones, the houses are of layers of stones and four or five storeys high, the cooking and the entertaining of guests all being done on top. The men do up their hair in knots hanging all around and wrap cotton cloth around their waists. The women do up their hair in a chignon behind and brighten up the crown with yellow varnish. From their ears hang a number of strings [of coins ?], around their necks they wear silver rings, and a fringe hangs down on the breast. When they go out, they cover themselves with a cotton sheet, and veil their faces with blue gauze. On their feet they wear shoes or leather slippers. Near the [foot of the] mountain the country is a desert of brownish soil and stones. The soil is poor, the crops sparse. It may not rain [sometimes] for a number of years. They make very deep wells and draw up the water in sheep-skin bags by means of cog-wheels. They are excitable and obstinate. Archery is a part of their military training. The rich are neighbourly with the people. The poor people get their living by catching sea-fish in nets; these they dry and eat, and also feed their camels, horses, cattle and sheep on them. The native products are frankincense, gold coins, leopards, ambergris. The goods used in trading [here by the Chinese] are gold, silver, coloured satins, sandal-wood, rice, china-ware, coloured taffetas. The ruler, in pursuance of custom, brought articles of tribute." - Fei Xin (http://domin.dom.edu/faculty/dperry/hist270silk/calendar/zhenghe/feihsin.htm) (1385 - 1436)

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Old Mogadishan Stone-tablet

From Aden, Ibn Battuta embarked on a ship heading for Zeila on the coast of Somalia. He then moved on to Cape Guardafui further down the Somalia seaboard, spending about a week in each location. Later he would visit Mogadishu, the then pre-eminent city of the "Land of the Berbers" (بلد البربر Bilad al Barbar, the medieval Arabic term for the Horn of Africa).

When he arrived in 1331, Mogadishu stood at the zenith of its prosperity. Ibn Battuta described it as "an exceedingly large city" with many rich merchants, noted for its high quality fabric that was exported to other countries including Egypt. He added that the city was ruled by a Somali Sultan, originally from Berbera in northern Somalia, who spoke both Somali (referred to as Mogadishan, the Benadir dialect of Somali) and Arabic with equal fluency. The Sultan also had a retinue of wazirs (ministers), legal experts, commanders, royal eunuchs, and assorted hangers-on at his beck and call. - Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta)

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Mogadishan Currency
Mogadishu currency was an old coinage system dating from the medieval trading empire of Mogadishu, when it centralized its commercial hegemony by minting its own coins to facilitate regional trade. The coins beared the names of 23 successive Sultans of Mogadishu. Some also adopted the style of the extant Fatimid and the Ottoman currencies. Mogadishan coins were in widespread circulation, and have been found as far away as modern United Arab Emirates where a coin bearing the name of a 15th century Somali Sultan Ali b. Yusuf of Mogadishu was excavated. - Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogadishu_currency)

Old town of Amud:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Amud%2C_Somalia.jpg
Amud or Amoud (Somali: Amuud) is a medieval Somali city that flourished during the Golden Age of the Adal Sultanate. It is situated 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level. The old section of the city spans 25 acres and contains hundreds of ancient ruins of multi-roomed courtyard houses, stone walls, complex mosques, and other archaeological remains, including intricate colored glass bracelets and Chinese ceramics. -link (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amud)

I really wish that Sland would try to renovate Saylac's historic sites. :ohno:

Old town of Amud:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Amud%2C_Somalia.jpg

Been there!

Ruins in Ras Hafun, Opone of the ancient world:

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Opone was an ancient city situated on the Somali peninsula primarily known for its trade with the Ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Persia and the states of ancient India. Through archaeological remains the ancient port city has been identified with the modern town of Hafun in Somalia

Pottery found in Oponean tombs date back to the Mycenaean Kingdom of Greece that flourished between the 16th and 11th century BC. Its major periods of activity were during the 1st century BC and the 3rd to the 5th centuries AD. Opone was mentioned by an anonymous Greek merchant in the 1st century CE in his Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Opone is in the thirteenth entry of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, which in part states:

" And then, after sailing four hundred stadia along a promontory, toward which place the current also draws you, there is another market-town called Opone, into which the same things are imported as those already mentioned, and in it the greatest quantity of cinnamon is produced, (the arebo and moto), and slaves of the better sort, which are brought to Egypt in increasing numbers; and a great quantity of tortoiseshell, better than that found elsewhere.

Opone served as a port of call for merchants from Phoenicia, Egypt, Greece, Persia, Yemen, Nabataea, Azania, the Roman Empire and elsewhere, as it sat at a strategic location along the coastal route from the Mochan trading center of Azania to the Red Sea. Merchants from as far afield as Indonesia and Malaysia passed through Opone, exchanging spices, silks and other goods, before departing south for Azania or north to Yemen or Egypt on the trade routes that spanned the length of the Indian Ocean's rim. As early as 50 CE, it was well known as a center for the cinnamon trade, along with the barter of cloves and other spices, ivory, exotic animal skins and incense.

Ancient Egyptian, Roman and Persian Gulf pottery has been recovered from the site by an archaeological team from the University of Michigan. In the 1970s Neville Chittick a British archaeologist initiated the British-Somali expedition where he and his Somali colleagues encountered remains of ancient drystone walls, houses with courtyards and the location of the old Harbour. - Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opone)

I really wish that Sland would try to renovate Saylac's historic sites. :ohno:

Community initiatives, rather than government should be promoted to restore and preserve Somali heritage, as governments come and go but the people will always be there, hence they should be the guardians.

Been there!

Where are the pics walaal? :cheers:

Keep up the good work. :)

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/208440_853653310129_36812366_44076766_2466962_n.jpg

This photo of the Sayyid's castle looks majestic.

13th century Fakr ad-Din Mosque

http://i52.tinypic.com/nlr1qu.jpg
The Fakr ad-Din Mosque is the oldest mosque in Mogadishu, Somalia. It is located in Hamar Weyne (literally "Big Hamar"), the oldest part of the city.

The mosque was built in 1269 by the first Sultan of Mogadishu. Stone, including Indian marble, and coral were the primary materials used in the construction of the mosque, which displays a compact rectangular plan with a domed mihrab axis. Glazed tiles were also used in the decoration of mihrab, one of which bears a dated inscription.

Photographs of the Fakr ad-Din mosque feature in drawings and photographs of central Mogadishu from the late 19th century onwards. The mosque can be identified amidst other buildings by its two cones, one round and the other hexagonal. -SOURCE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fakr_ad-Din_Mosque)


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Fakr_Ud_Din_Mosque.jpg

wonderful pictures, the arcitecture is stunning.

I have never really told you but thank you for all the work you put into these threads. Very appreciated
They are the first place I come to lurk in when I see updates :yes:

I love it when I learn something new about Somalia I didn't know before

Appreciate the kind words sis, its nice to know you enjoy the Somali galleries.:cheers:

More to come. :)

Videos on Berbera's ancient and medieval heritage:

kzilRAUBArE

OVf27zmNp2o

Our heritage is amazingly rich. What I don't understand however is this emphasis on the nomadic side of that heritage. When talking about Somali culture and heritage, no one usually mentions the Ajuuraan Empire, the thriving coastal cities and our long tradition of trade with the world, no one will talk about all the urban settlements that existed for thousands of years.

It pisses me off when some try to portray us as a bunch of nomadic herders with no history and that everything was built by the European colonizers. When for centuries we managed to keep the same Europeans invaders out of our lands (Ajuuraan-Portuguese wars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajuuraan_state#Ajuuraan-Portuguese_wars))

It's time we, younger generation Somalis, try to fix that unbalance by realizing that our heritage is not just nomadic, but much richer and wider than that. Hmm...I'm gonna name my sons Ajuuraan and Adal :lol:

Our heritage is amazingly rich. What I don't understand however is this emphasis on the nomadic side of that heritage. When talking about Somali culture and heritage, no one usually mentions the Ajuuraan Empire, the thriving coastal cities and our long tradition of trade with the world, no one will talk about all the urban settlements that existed for thousands of years.

Because when it comes down to it, the vast majority of Somalis have nomadic heritage and the oral history that has went down from generation to generation is dependent on this reality.

I do agree though, Somali history is a bit nomadic focused in the expense of our urban and sedentary history overall.

I have to admit, if it was not for the internet, I would perhaps not even know that the coastal cities and their trade as well as the various Sultanates ever existed.

:cripes:

We aren't the only African country to suffer from being pidgeon-holed or see its own heritage coveted to foreigners, one can see the same with Axum, once attributed to the South Arabians, or the Great Zimbabwe ruins that colonial scholarship once claimed was build by Southeast Asians. Our ancestors were nomads, but they were also sailors, traders, warriors, poets, scholars, urbanites and rulers, hence the myriad of impressive cities and buildings from historic times still gracing our landscapes today, and most of our uninhabited ruined cities and tombs have yet to be excavated, so there is plenty more we will learn in the future.

As for oral history, most of the commoners of the world passed their own stories orally throughout history, but it was the scholars and wealthy that wrote down those same stories in writing. In Somalia several Somalist scholars like I.M Lewis visited various private libraries in Somalia storing historic manuscripts on Somali history, but the guardians refused to loan him even a single manuscript, not even to copy it, because it had been in their family for so long.

In hindsight I'm happy that they didn't store it in the National Museum, or those precious books would have disappeared like the other 3000 historic manuscripts that were donated by private libraries in Somalia. Winning the trust of the guardians and at the same time tapping into the wealth of info that still remains within those closely guarded manuscripts would shed alot of light on Somali monarchs/family lists, foreign relations, trade transactions, saint hagiographies, astrology, medicine and other culturally important relics of the past.

The photos are beautiful,I especially liked the pics of Mugdisho,very exotic structures.

During the Middle Age Somali city states and empires, Somali was written using the Arabic script right? I never came across any of manuscripts, texts dating back to that era. Do u have any ideas if such texts are studied? Are they taught in Somali literature classes? I'd love to have one of these texts (of course rewritten in latin alphabet) to see how the language evolved over the centuries. I'd love to access that period's rich poetry as well.

an archaeologist from Somaliland has rediscovered some ancient tablet written in the sabien script, if anyone could get pics it would be a great addition to this thread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrwhWAnxvbY

^Written tablets from 1000 BC Somalia aren't Sabeaen, she just made a reference to the time-period of the mythical Queen of Sheba. Previous explorers found no similarity between those symbols and other scripts on both sides of the Red Sea. I believe it was a system used by the ancient city-states like Opone, Mosylon and Malao, but it eventually died out, much like Meroitic did in Sudan.

Still, there is a lot of ancient history burried in Somali soil.

During the Middle Age Somali city states and empires, Somali was written using the Arabic script right? I never came across any of manuscripts, texts dating back to that era. Do u have any ideas if such texts are studied? Are they taught in Somali literature classes? I'd love to have one of these texts (of course rewritten in latin alphabet) to see how the language evolved over the centuries. I'd love to access that period's rich poetry as well.

It is known as "Wadaad's Writing". The former National Museum, which was one of the largest in Africa before it was looted, housed a sizable collection of old manuscripts. Majority remain in private hands.

http://www.markacadeey.com/Tartan_quran_20080925/images/dsc02923.jpg

http://www.markacadeey.com/Tartan_quran_20080925/images/dsc02938.jpg

http://www.markacadeey.com/Tartan_quran_20080925/images/dsc02924.jpg

http://www.markacadeey.com/Tartan_quran_20080925/images/dsc02929.jpg

http://www.markacadeey.com/Tartan_quran_20080925/images/dsc02931.jpg

http://www.markacadeey.com/Tartan_quran_20080925/images/dsc02938.jpg

Manshallah, they are the future of the country.

^^The are sooo cute Mashallah.

This topic was a lovely read C-MMX thank you, I've learnt loads.

^Welcome, abaayo.

Dervish Tombs, Taleex

http://i47.tinypic.com/30t1isk.jpg

^^

Once again well done!!

Its shame most of us never visit historic places. We need to when we go back, because that region is stable.

^I agree, places like Zeila and Taleex should have far more pictorial respresentation than they enjoy today considering these towns have been stable for two decades.

Old Bulhar
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom2270.jpg

http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom2269.jpg

Dhudo Fort
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom1502.jpg

Mogadishu Fort
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom343.jpg

Geresa Fort
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom853.jpg

Abasa City ruins
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom254.jpg

Old Barawa
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom563.jpg

http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom554.jpg

http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom553.jpg

http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom572.jpg

Bur Gabo ruins
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom582.jpg

Old Gobweyne
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom483.jpg

Ancient Hafun
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom803.jpg

http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom813.jpg

Old Merka
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom526.jpg

http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom533.jpg

Iskushubaan Fort
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom2243.jpg

Old Maduna
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom1699.jpg

Old Qandala
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom2301.jpg

Old Nimmo
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom589.jpg

Old Bosaso
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom2248.jpg
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom2249.jpg

Old Zeila
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom2292.jpg
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom2280.jpg

Hamarweyne quarters
http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom2145.jpg

http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/01/bieasom1454.jpg

http://ts-den.aluka.org/fsi/img/size1/heritage/bieasom/phase_01/03/bieasom346.jpg

^^ Amazing pics! I wonder where you find such pics...Some of these ruins are from long abandoned cities. Great work, keep them coming...

http://media.tumblr.com/74a9758ea04b5f63a2712e5371e195cd/tumblr_inline_mjcroxX8TM1qz4rgp.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/261301_572428302767850_831845295_n.jpg

The old fish market

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxhqm1ubsg1r9llg7o1_400.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0vh1glgEg1r9llg7o1_500.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxyu78SVlh1r9llg7o1_500.jpg