Qualla: Berbera https://qualla.com/berbera en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/1/b/5/berbera-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Berbera https://qualla.com/berbera Berbera: Introduction https://qualla.com/berbera/ Photo credit Major Henry A. Rayne, Public domain. In 1801, a merchant named Ibrahim Punkar wrote to the Governor of Bombay describing a coastal city with five or six armed towers, where Somali traders adhering to the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islam exchanged goods from Harar, Gondar, and Shewa for cloth, rice, and tobacco arriving from Gujarat and Muscat. Dates and tin came from Mocha, Jeddah, and Al Mukalla. The city was Berbera, and it had been doing this kind of business for at least two thousand years. Perched on the southern shore of the Gulf of Aden with the only sheltered natural harbor on the entire coast, Berbera has served every power that ever wanted to control the Red Sea approaches — and outlasted them all.

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Image: Major Henry A. Rayne | Public domain

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/1/b/5/berbera-wp/t1b5-berbera-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Berbera: The Ancient Port of Malao https://qualla.com/berbera/ Photo credit Élisee Reclus, Translated by Augustus Henry Keane, 1833-1912, Public domain. Berbera's trading history reaches back to classical antiquity. The city is believed to be the ancient port of Malao, described in the first-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as lying 800 stadia beyond the city of the Avalites. Somali sailors navigated these waters in the bed...

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Image: Élisee Reclus, Translated by Augustus Henry Keane, 1833-1912 | Public domain

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/1/b/5/berbera-wp/t1b5-berbera-the-ancient-port-of-malao.mp3 0:06 2 full Berbera: Empires at the Harbor https://qualla.com/berbera/ Photo credit Royal Navy, Public domain. Berbera's strategic value made it a prize worth fighting over. In 1516, the Portuguese fleet under Lopo Soares de Albergaria sacked the city, part of a broader campaign to dominate Indian Ocean trade routes. Ottoman admiral Selman Reis arrived not long after, extending Istanbul's...

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Image: Royal Navy | Public domain

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/1/b/5/berbera-wp/t1b5-berbera-empires-at-the-harbor.mp3 0:06 3 full Berbera: Superpower Playground https://qualla.com/berbera/ Photo credit The original uploader was Mokonono at English Wikipedia., Public domain. The Cold War gave Berbera a new chapter. After Somalia's independence in 1960, the Soviet Union signed an agreement in 1962 to develop the port's facilities, later significantly upgrading them in 1969 under Siad Barre's government. Soviet naval vessels and personnel operated from...

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Image: The original uploader was Mokonono at English Wikipedia. | Public domain

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/1/b/5/berbera-wp/t1b5-berbera-superpower-playground.mp3 0:06 4 full Berbera: The Port Reborn https://qualla.com/berbera/ Photo credit YoTuT from United States, CC BY 2.0. Today Berbera is reinventing itself once more. In 2016, the Somaliland government signed a 30-year concession with DP World, the Dubai-based logistics giant, to develop and operate the port. A new container terminal opened as part of a $442 million investment, positioning Berbera...

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Image: YoTuT from United States | CC BY 2.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/1/b/5/berbera-wp/t1b5-berbera-the-port-reborn.mp3 0:06 5 full