Description

Located on the Gulf of Aden coast near the Djibouti border, the town sits on a sandy spit surrounded by the sea. It is known for its coral reef, mangroves and offshore islands, which include the Sa’ad ad-Din archipelago named after the Somali Sultan Sa’ad ad-Din II of the Sultanate of Ifat. Landward, the terrain is unbroken desert for some fifty miles. Berbera lies 170 miles (270 km) southeast of Zeyla while the city of Harar in Ethiopia is 200 miles (320 km) to the west.

Zeyla is a port city in the western Awdal region of Somaliland. The town evolved into an early Islamic centre with the arrival of Muslims shortly after the Hegira. By the 9th century, Zeyla was the capital of the early Adal Kingdom and Ifat Sultanate in the 13th century, and also a capital for its successor state the Adal Sultanate, it would attain its height of prosperity a few centuries later in the 16th century. The city subsequently came under Ottoman and British protection in the 18th century.

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