Berbera’s Annual Fair

[Emir of Zayla]

One certainty about Berbera over the many centuries was that it was the site of an annual fair, held between October and April, which Mordechai Abir describes as "among the most important commercial events of the east coast of Africa."[21]The major Somali sub-clans of the Isaaq in Somaliland, caravans from Harar and the interior, and Banyan merchants from Porbandar, Mangaloreand Mumbai gathered to trade. All of this was kept secret from European merchants.[22] Lieutenant C. J. Cruttenden, who wrote a memoir describing this portion of the Somali coast dated 12 May 1848, provided an account of the Berbera fair and an account of the historic environs of the town: "an aqueduct of stone and chunam, some nine miles [15 km] in length", which had once emptied into a presently dry reservoir adjacent to the ruins of a mosque. He explored part of its course from the reservoir past a number of tombs built of stones taken from the aqueduct to reach a spring, above which lay "the remains of a small fort or tower of chunam and stone ... on the hill-side immediately over the spring." Cruttenden noted that in "style it was different to any houses now found on the Somali coast", and concluded with noting the presence in "the neighbourhood of the fort above mentioned [an] abundance of broken glass and pottery ... from which I infer that it was a place of considerable antiquity; but, though diligent search was made, no traces of inscriptions could be discovered."

The Somali and Ethiopian interiors were very dependent on Berbera for trade, where most of the goods for export arrived from.[24]During the 1833 trading season, the port town swelled up to 70,000 people, and upwards of 6,000 camels laden with goods arrived from the interior within a single day. Berbera was the main marketplace in the entire Somali seaboard for various goods procured from the interior, such as livestock, coffee, frankincense, myrrh, acacia gum, saffron, feathers, wax, ghee, hide (skin), gold and ivory.[25] In the trading season of 1840, French explorer Charles-Xavier Rochet d'Héricourt visited Berbera and estimated the total exports of the season to be around thirteen times greater than that of Massawa.


It’s seems Berbera was quite the wealthy & important city during its time and was even economically dominant on the Yemeni coast on cities like Aden for example. It seems this lavish and rich trading season & fairs also brought over 6,000 camels and caravans laden with coffee, frankincense, myrrh, acacia gum, saffron, feathers, wax, ghee, hide (skin), gold and ivory, guns and gunpowder back to Harar of which the Somalis there traded with the Christian Abyssinia.

 

[Emir of Zayla]

An interesting thing I’ve found in the text was one of the early adventurers to the Horn in the 1800s talked about an presumed ancient large stone/chunam aqueduct & fort that had an architecture style unfound in Zeila & Berbera.

Lieutenant C. J. Cruttenden, who wrote a memoir describing this portion of the Somali coast dated 12 May 1848, provided an account of the Berbera fair and an account of the historic environs of the town: "an aqueduct of stone and chunam, some nine miles [15 km] in length", which had once emptied into a presently dry reservoir adjacent to the ruins of a mosque. He explored part of its course from the reservoir past a number of tombs built of stones taken from the aqueduct to reach a spring, above which lay "the remains of a small fort or tower of chunam and stone ... on the hill-side immediately over the spring." Cruttenden noted that in "style it was different to any houses now found on the Somali coast", and concluded with noting the presence in "the neighbourhood of the fort above mentioned [an] abundance of broken glass and pottery ... from which I infer that it was a place of considerable antiquity; but, though diligent search was made, no traces of inscriptions could be discovered."

For those who don’t know what an aqueduct is:

 

[Cartan Boos]

very informative thanks sxb

 

[Cartan Boos]

An interesting thing I’ve found in the text was one of the early adventurers to the Horn in the 1800s talked about an presumed ancient large stone/chunam aqueduct & fort that had an architecture style unfound in Zeila & Berbera.

Lieutenant C. J. Cruttenden, who wrote a memoir describing this portion of the Somali coast dated 12 May 1848, provided an account of the Berbera fair and an account of the historic environs of the town: "an aqueduct of stone and chunam, some nine miles [15 km] in length", which had once emptied into a presently dry reservoir adjacent to the ruins of a mosque. He explored part of its course from the reservoir past a number of tombs built of stones taken from the aqueduct to reach a spring, above which lay "the remains of a small fort or tower of chunam and stone ... on the hill-side immediately over the spring." Cruttenden noted that in "style it was different to any houses now found on the Somali coast", and concluded with noting the presence in "the neighbourhood of the fort above mentioned [an] abundance of broken glass and pottery ... from which I infer that it was a place of considerable antiquity; but, though diligent search was made, no traces of inscriptions could be discovered."

For those who don’t know what an aqueduct is:
View attachment 286385

that's crazy, we know bridges wasn't uncommon thing in the horn of africa as the habesha and northern cushitic agew built some

 

[Emir of Zayla]

Lieutenant C. J. Cruttenden, who wrote a memoir describing this portion of the Somali coast dated 12 May 1848, provided an account of the Berbera fair and an account of the historic environs of the town: "an aqueduct of stone and chunam, some nine miles [15 km] in length", which had once emptied into a presently dry reservoir adjacent to the ruins of a mosque. He explored part of its course from the reservoir past a number of tombs built of stones taken from the aqueduct to reach a spring.

For those who don’t know what an aqueduct is:
View attachment 286385

For an stone/chunam aqueduct to be 15 Kilometers long it must have cost a lot of wealth & time for it to have been built. Could it have been built during the medieval Muslim/Christian Horn times or during Axumite times perhaps? Axum had a deep relationship with Rome & they were versed in building aqueducts. It was most likely indigenous Horner built though as the scholar, Lieutenant C.J. Cruttenden would recognized the roman style if that were the case, but he claimed it was built in a style he hadn’t seen before.

 

[Cartan Boos]

fun fact before the british named the ''gulf of aden it was called ''gulf of berbera''

 

[Emir of Zayla]

that's crazy, we know bridges wasn't uncommon thing in the horn of africa as the habesha and northern cushitic agew built some
View attachment 286393
View attachment 286395

An aqueduct is different though. It’s a watercourse constructed to carry water from a source to a distribution point far away. In other words, it carries water from one place to another. This aqueduct was 15 kilometers long so it’d be transporting water at a very long distance. But it could have been used as a bridge also, I’ve never seen one in real life lol.

 

[Cartan Boos]

An interesting thing I’ve found in the text was one of the early adventurers to the Horn in the 1800s talked about an presumed ancient large stone/chunam aqueduct & fort that had an architecture style unfound in Zeila & Berbera.

Lieutenant C. J. Cruttenden, who wrote a memoir describing this portion of the Somali coast dated 12 May 1848, provided an account of the Berbera fair and an account of the historic environs of the town: "an aqueduct of stone and chunam, some nine miles [15 km] in length", which had once emptied into a presently dry reservoir adjacent to the ruins of a mosque. He explored part of its course from the reservoir past a number of tombs built of stones taken from the aqueduct to reach a spring, above which lay "the remains of a small fort or tower of chunam and stone ... on the hill-side immediately over the spring." Cruttenden noted that in "style it was different to any houses now found on the Somali coast", and concluded with noting the presence in "the neighbourhood of the fort above mentioned [an] abundance of broken glass and pottery ... from which I infer that it was a place of considerable antiquity; but, though diligent search was made, no traces of inscriptions could be discovered."

For those who don’t know what an aqueduct is:
View attachment 286385

how did he describe berbera, did it had walls like other sonali cities

 

[Emir of Zayla]

how did he describe berbera, did it had walls like other sonali cities

I’m pretty sure it was walled since the Middle Ages

 

[Almis]

My 9th grandfather tomb is there near Berbera's Beach

 

[Garaad diinle]

Berbera in the 1850s.

Berberas fort and aqueduct.

 

[Emir of Zayla]

Berbera in the 1850s.

Berberas fort and aqueduct.

Lieutenant C. J. Cruttenden who wrote about the aqueduct & fort said it was built in a style of architecture different than what was found in Somalo-Islamic architecture at the time, it could have been built during ancient times perhaps