Mogadishu back to Antiquity and the Arjuan Empire : Way way back - into Somali History, Culture, and Cuisine

Mogadishu back to Antiquity and the Arjuan Empire : Way way back - into Somali History, Culture, and Cuisine 

TOUR OF THE OPENING OF AFRICA TO THE WORLD AND THE SILK ROADS

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THIS TOUR FEATURES PROFESSORS OR HISTORIANS, AND ON OCCASION (IF ON VISITING RESIDENCE) ARCHEOLOGISTS AND ISLAMIC AND CHINESE SCHOLARS, AS WELL AS MARITIME EXCAVATION ADMINISTRATORS.

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When the greatest Chinese Explorer and adventurer, Admiral Zheng He, a Muslim from Kunming’s southwestern Chinese tropics set foot near Africa’s Horn hundreds of years ago, he unearthed an entirely new, opulent, and imaginative universe of the continent behind the shore that resonates with the earth’s borders today. The first worldwide knowledge regarding Africa came from this place you are touring now. This tour retraces the introduction of Africa to the world, through its first diplomatic visit and first impression. 

Mogadishu Somalia was the first time Africa’s great legends, amazing wild animals, culture, map knowledge, and history was made known to the wider world. Arjuan, the old name of this land, was the nexus of cultural exchange and the maritime silk road that enabled the Chinese Ming Emperor and by extension Europe aware of the amazing adventures that awaiting them inside the continent. Mogadishu used to be one of the most civilized, learned, and layered cultural African cities, and opened Africa really up to the world for the first time.

We’ll see some of the old Arjuan architecture on this trip, along with Italian-Somali-esque ruins, and the first architectural foretellings of Islam which made their way from Arabia to here as well. This tour looks at Mogadishu and the antiquity of the Somali culture, where everybody is coming from, and how the country got to be how it is today. We look not just at colonial and Islamic influences on the makeup of the city and the people, but go much farther back than both Islam, the Silk Road, Colonialism, of the state’s recent disintegration and resurrection.

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Part of today’s tour is experiencing the food and the cuisine and eating practices of Somalia, as 1/3 of life here at least is focused on this alone. The meat, the fish, the spices, the import of all of the ingredients, the produce and fruits that make up the diet of the country. 

You will, of course, get to see the QAT plant and markets and where it comes from as well as how it lodged itself into Somali mentalities and mindsets and every day culture. 

NOTE: Some of the coral architecture may require you to avoid touching art and artifacts. Tourists have been fined for not obeying this so please bear in mind.

You’ll see the perfumes and frankincense and commodities that made the nation’s regional and original economy with Asia and Arabia in the days of the maritime silk road.

The tour includes serious and sobering security forces and vehicles, a guide/fixer, at least 2 meals and locales and lessons, fuel and transport and entrances, and the full day’s tour. You may take photographs.

STRICT STANDARD RULES APPLY TO THIS TOUR AS ALL THE REST OF STS.