Maydh Somalia

Maydh Somalia

Located at the foot of the escarpment base at Rugay, Maydh Somalia or Maydh Somaliland is 33 km away from Erigavo. The road winds through a wide riverine valley with some perennial pools and is flanked by heavily eroded slopes dotted with caves. The main escarpment to the south is densely forested. As it travels, it passes by massive prehistoric cairns and the tomb of Sheikh Issa, founder of the Dir Issa clan of western Awdal and Djibouti. Maydh, also transliterated as Mait, doesn’t seem much of a place today, containing a small cluster of maybe 100 buildings (some of them traditional Swahili) housing around 2,000 to 3,000  people, a small jetty, and a beach lined with fishing nets and merchant dhows from elsewhere in the Gulf of Aden.

However, the nearby mountains have been a legendary source of frankincense for millennia. Therefore, it is likely that it has been an active trade port for at least 1,000 years. Islamic settlers displaced the area’s older Galla inhabitants before the end of the 13th century. This included Sheikh Isaq, the founder of Somaliland’s dominant clan, whose tomb stands south of Maydh. Also from the small port, boats can be taken to Jasiira Maydh, an offshore island where marine birds flock seasonally.

A practical guide  

As a practical guide, a couple of 4x4s appear to operate between Erigavo and Maydh every day, but they are often cramped and foreigners are unlikely to be permitted to ride them. Otherwise, you’ll have to hire a private 4×4 to get to Maydh, a trip that takes between four and five hours down the Daallo Escarpment. It is not possible to stay in Maydh’s hotel, but you may request advance permission to stay at the small and inexpensive government guesthouse on the beachfront. You may be required to pay a small fee to camp or crash at the marine police camp, if that is not possible. Several shops sell biscuits and soft drinks in the center of town, and a small restaurant serves fish and pasta dishes.

What to see and do in Maydh

In the first place, it is better to know what to see and do in Maydh, as aspirant beachfront idylls go, Maydh has a somewhat austere location, but it is a delightful place nonetheless, with its mountainous backdrop especially pretty in the early morning and late afternoon light. Swimming is probably not an option due to local dress codes, but if you just want to hang out, the atmosphere is very relaxed and friendly. Below is a list of several sites of interest outside of town that are worth exploring.

Sheikh Isaq’s Tomb  

In Somaliland, Sheikh Isaq’s Tomb is one of the most important cultural landmarks, located on a small seafront rise about 3 km south of Maydh. The Isaq (or Isaaq) clan, founded by its namesake in the 12th or 13th century, is the most numerically and politically significant clan in Somaliland, where its subclans account for the majority of the population in the country’s five largest towns: Hargeisa, Burao, Berbera, Erigavo and Gabiley. Generally, foreigners are not allowed to enter the compound or take pictures, and they are not allowed to look at the exterior. In addition to pilgrims from all over Somaliland, the tomb attracts pilgrims from far afield, particularly during the celebration of Isaq’s birthday, which falls between late September and early November between 2018 and 2020. The medieval town of Maydh may also have been centered around the tomb, although no excavations have taken place yet.

Jasiira Maydh  

The Jasiira Maydh (also known as Rabshie or Mait Island) is a barren granite outcrop located 13 kilometers offshore, with an elevation of 125 meters.  It comprises 45ha of land and is less than 2km in length, but it does not exceed 300m in width, making it one of the country’s six ‘Important Bird Areas’, as well as a possible future marine protected area. 

There are sometimes up to 100,000 birds present during the breeding season from June to September, but there are few birds at other times of year when mainlanders visit regularly to collect guano. As many as 20,000 brown noddy pairs have been observed during breeding season, while other species include the masked booby, the brown booby, the sooty tern, the bridled tern, the white-cheeked tern, the localised Socotra cormorant, and the magnificent red-billed tropicbird.

If you want to get here from Maydh, you may charter a motorboat from the marine police, which costs about US$300–400 per party (assuming it is available), or you may make a deal with a local boat owner, which is more likely to cost US$50–60 per group. If you are planning to visit between October and May, the breeding birds are absent, so it is best to set sail in the early morning when the sea is calm.

Sheikh Issa’s Tomb and The Taala Galla

Between Rugay and Maydh, Sheikh Issa’s Tomb and the Taala Galla stand out as the most prominent artificial landmarks. About 300m east of the main road, the Tomb of Sheikh Issa lies about halfway between the two villages. The Dir Somali clan, whose main population base is now in Djibouti, traces its lineage back to Aqeel bin Abi Talib, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad who died in the late 7th century. According to some sources, Sheikh Issa founded the clan that bears his name contemporaneously with Sheikh Isaq, which would suggest the Maydh area served as an important hub for Islamic infiltration. Visits and photographs of this tomb by non-Islamic foreigners do not seem to be a problem.

The road between Sheikh Issa’s Tomb and Rugay passes through an area studded with dozens of monumental tumuli (stone burial cairns), the largest of which must be 5m high and 10m wide. There are different coloured stones used for the lateral sections of the cairns, and the cairns are enclosed in a larger circular clearing with a stone boundary ring. In southern Ethiopia, these enigmatic mounds are known as Taalla Galla, literally, ‘Graves of the Galla’ (an archaic name for the Oromo people). 

Locals also refer to the cairns as ‘Christian graves’, suggesting that they are linked to the ancient Christian Empire in Ethiopia (a separate cultural entity from the Galla/Oromo) or that they may simply express their non-Islamic origin. It’s most likely that these fascinating and evocative structures date back to the 13th century or earlier, which means they predate the arrival of Islam in the area. There has been little excavation, but the few cairns that have been opened contain a small chamber covered by a large flat rock. Pyramidal shapes of the tumuli have been suggested, perhaps a little fancifully, as evidence of religious or cultural connections to Ancient Egypt.