Country | Region Lower Shebelle District Merca Population 230,100 | |
Merca (Somali: , Arabic: ?) is an ancient port city in the southern Lower Shebelle province of Somalia. Facing the Indian Ocean, it is the main town in the province. It is located approximately 109 km (68 mi) to the southwest of the nations capital, Mogadishu.
Contents
- Map of Merca
- History
- Brazilian food a morning at the municipal market in sao paulo mercado municipal
- References
Map of Merca
History
During the Middle Ages, the Merca area was part of the Ajuran Sultanates realm. The polity formed one of the largest kingdoms in the southern half of the Horn region. Various pillar tombs exist in the region, which local tradition holds were built in the 16th century, when the Sultanates naaibs governed the district.
The first written reference to Merca dates back to a 13th-century document by the Arab geographer, Ibn Said, who described the town at the time as the "capital of Hawiye country". The 12th century cartographer Muhammad al-Idrisi may have referred to the Hawiye as well, as he called Merca the region of the "Hadiye", which Herbert S. Lewis believes is a scribal error for "Hawiye", as do Guilliani, Schleicher and Cerulli.
The Biimaal Sultanate of Merca fought against the colonial authorities in Italian Somaliland in a twenty-year war known as the Bimaal revolt. Monuments erected in memory of slain soldiers can still be found in Merca.