The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a Greek sailing guide, lists Avalites (near Zeila), Malao (Berbera), Mundus (Heis), Mosylon, the Market of Spices near Cape Guardafui, and Opone (Ras Hafun), exporting myrrh, frankincense and spices (Chittick, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 8.4, 1979). See the Periplus ports.
Roman, Egyptian, Parthian, South Arabian and Indian goods were left at Heis (Xiis) in Sanaag (Fernández Fernández, González-Ruibal and de Torres, 2022). See Heis and Opone at Ras Hafun.
called the coast Barbaria. See Greek and Roman writers on the Somali coast.
The Tang scholar Duan Chengshi described Po-pa-li (Berbera), trading ivory and ambergris (Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-kua, 1911). See Chinese records of the Somali coast.
Beach fairs around Berbera traded with Asia; surveys found Chinese, Indian and Persian imports (González-Ruibal, de Torres et al., 2021). See the trade fairs of the Berbera coast.
The tax books of Rasulid Yemen name Zeila as the main port for the trade of "Abyssinia", Berbera and Maydh as ports shipping sheep to Aden, and Mogadishu as an East African trading city (Vallet, L'Arabie marchande). See Rasulid Yemen and the Somali ports.
Marco Polo wrote about the coast. See Marco Polo and the Somali coast.
Ibn Battuta described young men in Mogadishu meeting each ship to host the traders (Gibb, 1929). See Ibn Battuta in Mogadishu and Zeila.
Vasco da Gama passed Mogadishu in 1499. Duarte Barbosa described Zeila, Berbera, Barawa and Mogadishu trading gold, ivory and grain with India and Arabia. See the coast towns, 1331–1586.
João de Barros wrote that a Mogadishu ship was the first foreign vessel to reach the gold trade of Sofala. See Mogadishu and Brava in João de Barros and Zeila and Berbera in Barros.
"The Omanis exercised a shadowy authority over the Banaadir coast", which was later "drawn into the orbit of Zanzibari rulers" (Library of Congress, Somalia: A Country Study). See sultanates, the coast and customary law.
Britain held the northern coast mainly to supply Aden with livestock; Italy took the Banaadir ports. See British Somaliland and the partition.
Somali seamen and traders settled abroad through Aden; Aden had 10,611 Somali residents by 1955. See Somali seamen and early migrants.
The Somali Navy was founded with Soviet help, with bases at Berbera and Kismayo. It dissolved with the state in 1990–1991. See the Somali Navy.
Armed groups from the coasts of Mudug, Nugaal and Bari hijacked ships; attacks peaked in 2009–2011. See piracy off Somalia and ships hijacked off Somalia.
The Indian Ocean tsunami struck the Puntland coast. See the 2004 tsunami.
The navy was re-established. See the Somali Navy.
A Turkish company took over Mogadishu port, and DP World expanded Berbera from 2017. See ports and the port of Berbera.
The International Court of Justice drew the sea border between Somalia and Kenya, rejecting Kenya's line along the latitude (ICJ, Judgment of 12 October 2021). See the Somalia–Kenya maritime case.
Somalia and Turkey signed a ten-year defence and economic agreement under which Turkey is to build and train the navy. See the Somali Navy.
is estimated to cost Somalia about $300 million a year (ENACT, Institute for Security Studies, January 2026). See fishing and the sea.
and fishing communities hit by illegal fishing and the 2004 tsunami. See the linked pages.
In September 2007 alone, boats from Bosaso carrying more than 1,500 people reached Yemen, "with 62 reported dead or missing" (UN Security Council, S/2007/658, para. 47).
Most scholars place Malao at Berbera and Opone at Ras Hafun; other identifications are discussed on the Periplus ports.