Mogadishu

Sister cities

• Almaty
• Ankara
• Istanbul

History

The ancient city of Sarapion is believed to have been the predecessor state of Mogadishu. It is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greek travel document dating from the first century AD, as one of a series of commercial ports on the Somali littoral. According to the Periplus, maritime trade already connected peoples in the Mogadishu area with other communities along the Indian Ocean. During ancient times, Mogadishu was part of the Somali city-states that engaged in a lucrative trade network connecting Somali merchants with Phoenicia, Ptolemic Egypt, Greece, Parthian Persia, Sabaeans, Nabataea and the Roman Empire. Somali sailors used the ancient Somali maritime vessel known as the beden to transport their cargo. The founding ethnicity of Mogadishu and its subsequent sultanate has been a topic of intrigue in Somali Studies. Ioan Lewis and Enrico Cerulli believed that the city was founded and ruled by a council of Arab and Persian families. However, the reference I.M. Lewis and Cerulli received traces back to one 19th-century text called the Kitab Al-Zunuj, which has been discredited by modern scholars as unreliable and unhistorical. More importantly, it contradicts ancient oral and written sources, as well as archaeological evidence on the pre-existing civilizations and communities that flourished on the Somali coast, which were the forefathers of Mogadishu and other coastal cities. Thus, the Persian and Arab founding "myths" are regarded as an outdated, false colonialist reflection on Africans' ability to create their own sophisticated states. It has now been widely accepted that there were already communities on the Somali coast with ethnic Somali leadership, of whom the Arab and Persian families had to ask for permission to settle in their cities.…

Geography

Mogadishu is situated on the Indian Ocean coast of the Horn of Africa of Northeast Africa, in the Banaadir administrative region (gobol) in southeastern Somalia. The region itself is coextensive with the city and is much smaller than the historical province of Benadir. The city is administratively divided into eighteen districts of Abdiaziz, Bondhere, Daynile, Dharkenley, Hamar-Jajab, Hamar-Weyne, Heliwa, Hodan, Howl-Wadag, Karan, Shangani, Shibis, Waberi, Wadajir, Wardhigley and Yaqshid. Features of the city include the Hamarwein old town, the Bakaara Market, and Gezira Beach. The sandy beaches of Mogadishu have vibrant coral reefs, and are prime real estate for the first tourist resorts in many years. The Shebelle River (Webiga Shabelle) rises in central Ethiopia and comes within of the Indian Ocean near Mogadishu before turning southwestward. Usually dry during February and March, the river provides water essential for the cultivation of sugarcane, cotton, and bananas. For a city situated so near the equator, Mogadishu has a dry climate. It is classified as hot and dry winter (winter is hotter than summer) semi-arid (Köppen climate classification (BSh), as with much of southeastern Somalia. Summer (Jun–Aug) is the coldest and rainiest season. By contrast, towns in northern Somalia generally have a hot arid climate (Köppen BWh). While the city is relatively dry, due to its coastal location, relative humidity is rather high, averaging 79% for the year. Mogadishu is located in or near the tropical thorn woodland biome of the Holdridge global bioclimatic scheme. The mean temperature in the city year-round is , with an average maximum of and an average minimum of . Mean temperature readings per month vary by 3 °C (5.4 °F), corresponding with a hyperoceanic…

Most-observed species

• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  68
• Whimbrel

  Numenius phaeopus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  67
• Sacred Ibis

  Threskiornis aethiopicus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  65
• Black-bellied Plover

  Pluvialis squatarola (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  58
• Common Sandpiper

  Actitis hypoleucos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  50
• Crab-Plover

  Dromas ardeola Paykull, 1805 · Aves
  49
• Spur-winged Lapwing

  Vanellus spinosus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  39
• Pied Kingfisher

  Ceryle rudis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  38