Tour Of The Iconic Lighthouse In Mogadishu, Somalia 🇸🇴
Intro
During my time in Mogadishu, Somalia, I got up to quite a few activities, one of them being visiting the iconic lighthouse in Mogadishu that recently collapsed in mid-2023. If you are heading on a tour to Somalia, this is one of the places that almost all of the tour agencies will take you, as you will get a beautiful shot of the Mogadishu water.
The Experience
Once heading off from the fish market and seeing the incapacitated turtles, the next stop on the tour would see us walking along the beach to the lighthouse. As I am a foreigner, my guide advised me that we would be spending as much time in the car as we could for safety reasons (unfortunately).
I've been to a lot of places in the world, but no place compares to Somalia. Stepping out of the car, the first thing I noticed was how much trash was around. It must be that Somalia doesn't have a proper way to do waste disposal, at last this is the only thing that I can think of.
If you don't know much about the history of Somalia, you probably have seen Captain Philips and have come to the assumption that the place is a private haven. Mogadishu is not, but the skiffs did remind me a bit of watching Captain Philips.
Walking through this place that was hard to describe, with two armed policemen, we came across the iconic lighthouse of Mogadishu. The lighthouse has been a staple to Mogadishu for a long time due to helping coordinate shipping, its cultural heritage, and the history of this landmark.
We got to the "port" per se, and continued our trek long the beach. If you can make it out in the picture below, there is a concrete slab dead ahead, which is where a 5-star resort used to sit in the 1960s. People and celebrities would come from around the world to bask in the Somali ocean, go to the casino, and apparently partake in parties like none other. A while ago, during the Civil War, this place was abolished, and the locals took all of the materials to sell or use for property.
Fishermen were coming into dock their boats, and they looked strangely at me as if to wonder what the heck I was doing visiting Somalia as a tourist. As you'll see in the pictures below, along with the ongoing trend from other posts, it is a beautiful country that just doesn't have the proper resources to take care of it.
Which brings me to my next point: pictures. While pictures are relatively frowned upon, they can be taken in dedicated areas where your guide will tell you. It can cause serious issues if you take any pictures with government buildings in the background, and make sure there are no police around.
A quick selfie of me and the lighthouse because why not?
And just as we were heading back to the car, we heard a 4 x 4 pull up behind us. Find out what happened in the next post.
Final Thoughts
Visiting the lighthouse in Mogadishu, Somalia, was one of the highlights of my trip to the country. It showcased the ongoing trend of this trip, showing how beautiful the country is and how war-torn it is. If you are planning on heading to Somalia, this will definitely be on the agenda with any tour that you book.
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