In the morning, we finally went to explore Berbera. First, we drove to the historic port, which is now part of the new port complex. It’s not possible to get there, but we got a permit via friends to drive through the port. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to get out of our car. Then we walked around the city’s historic colonial and Ottoman-era buildings.
Berbera has a long history as a vital port city, dating back to antiquity when it was part of a major trading network connecting the Horn of Africa with empires in the Mediterranean and Persia. The town is believed to be the ancient port of Malao described in the first century AD in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. It was the capital of the medieval Sultanate of Adal, was occupied by various powers including the Ottoman Turks, and served as the colonial capital of British Somaliland from 1884 until 1941, when the capital was moved to Hargeisa. The Soviet Union improved port facilities during the 1970s and 1980s and built a very long runway, which was later rented by NASA from 1980 to 1991 for use as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle. Today, Berbera is an important international port for Somaliland and a key maritime gateway for landlocked Ethiopia.
