Mogadishu — "Xamar" in Somali — is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, a former Arab trading hub on the East African coast that was visited by Ibn Battuta in 1331 and became the centre of the Ajuran Sultanate's hydraulic civilisation. The city's colonial layers include a Portuguese-influenced period (they briefly held it in 1499) and Italian Mogadiscio (1889–1941), which left a legacy of art-deco buildings and espresso culture that persists to this day. After the civil war that began in 1991 and made Mogadishu a byword for urban warfare, the city has been progressively stabilising since the African Union Mission (AMISOM) operations from 2011 onwards. Visitors who come to Mogadishu today find a city rebuilding at remarkable speed — the Lido Beach corniche is lined with restaurants, the historic Hamar Weyne quarter has surviving Ottoman-era coral-stone architecture, and the Bakaara market hums with commerce. Travel remains challenging and requires specialist security advice, but journalists, NGO workers and a small number of adventurous travellers now visit Mogadishu, drawn by its extraordinary coastline, its intensely hospitable people and its status as one of the world's most unlikely comeback stories.
The historic coral-stone quarter on the Indian Ocean waterfront preserves Ottoman-Arab architecture — the carved wooden doors, arcaded streets and the ruined Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary (1928 Italian) trace Mogadishu's layered history.
The former palace of the Zanzibar Sultan houses what survived of the national collection — coins from the Arab trading era, Ajuran-period artefacts and photographs of pre-war Mogadishu when it was called the "White Pearl of the Indian Ocean".
The corniche restaurants have reopened and compete on grilled lobster, calamari and canjeero (fermented flatbread) served with dirac sauce — the Indian Ocean catch is outstanding and the city's new restaurant culture is impressive.
One of the largest open-air markets in East Africa — electronics, spices, khat, perfume, frankincense and livestock; a chaotic, commercially vital engine of Mogadishu's recovery that has run through every period of conflict.
The recently developed Peace Garden on the corniche represents the new Mogadishu's investment in public space — Somali families picnic here as Indian Ocean sunsets turn the ruined Soviet-era buildings gold.
The white sand beach 15 km north of Mogadishu is one of the finest undeveloped stretches on the East African coast — turquoise Indian Ocean water, coral rock formations and the shell of an abandoned Italian colonial beach hotel.
Mogadishu's Italian quarter has bullet-scarred but structurally surviving art-deco buildings — the former Post Office (1930), Cinema Centrale and the National Theatre (1967, UNESCO-listed) are the best preserved.
The ancient Indian Ocean port that Ibn Battuta described as the "greatest city in the land of the Berbers" is operational again — the dhow harbour adjacent to the commercial port preserves the traditional wooden vessel trade that has crossed to Oman and India for 1,000 years.
Hotel Shamo has been the base of choice for visiting journalists for a decade — the rooftop restaurant serves hilib (grilled goat), bariis (fragrant rice with cumin), and the famous Somali tea heavily sweetened with cardamom.
The fertile Shabelle River valley 30 km west of Mogadishu was Africa's largest IDP settlement during the famine years — now partially resettled and agricultural again, the river oasis contrasts sharply with the coastal aridity.
A newer institution documenting pre-war Somali material culture — the intricate wood carving of traditional beds (sariir), camel-hair weaving, silver jewellery and the oral poetry tradition (gabay) that is Somalia's highest art form.
Somalia and neighbouring Punt (the ancient Egyptian trade partner) have supplied frankincense and myrrh to the world for 3,000 years — Mogadishu's spice market sells the same resins burned in Egyptian temples and Christian churches.
A final swim in the Indian Ocean at Lido Beach, then farewell dinner of suqaar (spiced meat with vegetables), cambuulo (adzuki beans with butter and sugar) and Somali tea.