Afrinkong
Nature & LandscapesCal Madow
A mountain range behind Bosaso with cloud forest on top and frankincense on the slopes.
Photo French Sweetie / Pexels
SOMALIA · Tourism
Three Thousand Kilometres
Three thousand kilometres of Indian Ocean, the painted rock shelters at Laas Geel that are among the oldest in Africa, and the Cal Madow mountains — a country with real destinations and real constraints on reaching them.
East AfricaRegion
27Tourism experiences
The longest coastline in mainland AfricaKnown for
01
Featured destinations
Where the country actually takes you.
Nature & Landscapes
MountainsShimbiris
2,460 metres in the Cal Madow, the highest point, with juniper and cycads near the top.
Photo Fez Brook / Pexels
Seasonal, and Sudden
The Shabelle and Juba run south; everything else runs for a fortnight after the rains.
The Juba and the Shabelle
Two rivers off the Ethiopian highlands that make the only irrigated farmland in the country.
Berbera and Beyond
Berbera's beaches on the Gulf of Aden, and a reef wall a short swim from the sand.
Photo Saacid Ahmed / Unsplash
Frankincense Country
Boswellia trees on the Cal Madow slopes, tapped as they have been for four thousand years.
Photo Ivan Georgiev / Pexels
02
Wildlife & safari
What lives here, and how you see it without disturbing it.
Wildlife
Speke's Gazelle and the Sea
Speke's gazelle and dibatag inland, and turtles, dugong and whale sharks offshore.
Photo Mo Liban / Pexels
Not the Circuit
There are no game lodges. The wildlife here is coastal, and the interior is for those who know it.
Photo Engin Akyurt / Pexels
Frankincense and the Land
Boswellia grows on bare limestone where nothing else will, and it holds the slope together.
Photo Pole Oluline / Pexels
03
Culture & heritage
The part of a country you cannot photograph from a vehicle.
Culture
Poetry as the National Art
Somalis are called a nation of poets, and the reputation is deserved and enforced.
Nomad and Pastoralist
Camel herding is the oldest way of life here and still a large part of the economy.
Food & CuisineCamel Milk and Bariis
Camel milk, bariis iskukaris spiced with cumin and cardamom, and Somali tea with ginger.
Photo Anthony Rahayel / Pexels
Weddings and Buraanbur
Buraanbur — women's poetry with drumming and dance — carries the celebration.
Photo Israel Torres / Pexels
Weaving and Woodcarving
Aqal nomadic house frames, carved wooden headrests, and woven mats from the north.
Photo Archange Masudi / Pexels
Historic SitesLaas Geel
Rock shelters near Hargeisa painted with cattle and people, five thousand years old and unfaded.
Photo Amjad ali / Pexels
Ports of the Indian Ocean
Mogadishu, Merca and Barawa were trading cities when Europe had none on this ocean.
04
Cities & everyday life
Where people actually live between the landmarks.
CitiesMogadishu and Hargeisa
A white Indian Ocean capital rebuilding, and a highland city that has been quiet for thirty years.
Photo ibrahim sakhawi / Pexels
Coral Stone and Carved Doors
Swahili coral-rag architecture along the southern coast, with heavy carved doors.
Photo Amine EL-AQQAD / Pexels
The Camel Market
Hargeisa's livestock market on a weekday morning, and the money that moves through it.
Beaches, and Care
Lido beach in Mogadishu fills at the weekend. Go with local advice, always.
Photo Mikhail Nilov / Pexels
05
Adventure & outdoors
For travellers who would rather walk it than watch it.
Adventure
Diving Berbera
Unfished reefs in the Gulf of Aden, and almost no one to share them with.
Walking the Cal Madow
Cool forest, cycads and views to the Gulf of Aden, from Erigavo.
Photo Nikos B / Pexels
Luxury TravelBeginning to Exist
New hotels in Hargeisa and Mogadishu, mostly for business travellers, some of them good.
06
Travel inspiration
The frames people come home with.
Ochre on Rock
Laas Geel in the morning, when the shelters are lit and the cattle look painted yesterday.
Hidden GemsBerbera's Ottoman Quarter
A decaying Ottoman and colonial old town by the harbour, being slowly repaired.
Photo Cihan Çimen / Pexels
Why Visit This Country
Why Somalia
Rock art older than the pyramids, an unfished ocean, and a poetry tradition still practised daily.
Why Somalia
Rock art older than the pyramids, an unfished ocean, and a poetry tradition still practised daily.
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