Zeila

Also known as Zaila, Zayla

Zeila (, ), also known as Zaila or Zayla, is a historical port town in the western Awdal region of Somaliland.

OverviewAI-generated

Zeila, also known by its native name Saylac, is a human settlement located in the Awdal region of Somalia. The town has a population of 18,600 and sits at an elevation of 6 meters. It is situated in the Africa/Mogadishu timezone. Historically, Zeila served as the capital of the Adal Sultanate.

The settlement is described in the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Local geographic data identifies the area as part of Soomaaliland. Current weather observations recorded in May 2026 indicated a temperature of 30.35 degrees, humidity of 68 percent, and wind speed of 3.18.

Synthesized by Vinony from 27 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Openweathermap, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

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Place details

Locality: Saylac زيلع
Region: عدل Awdal
Country: Soomaaliland أرض الصومال
Population: 18,600
Timezone: Africa/Mogadishu

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Key facts

Settlement.official_name: Zeila
Settlement.settlement_type: Town
Settlement.pushpin_map: Awdal#Somaliland#Horn of Africa
Settlement.pushpin_label_position: right
Settlement.pushpin_map_caption: Location in Somaliland
Settlement.subdivision_type: Country
Settlement.subdivision_type1: Region
Settlement.subdivision_type2: District
Settlement.subdivision_name1: Awdal
Settlement.subdivision_name2: Zeila District
Settlement.established_title: Established
Settlement.established_date: ca. 1st century CE
Settlement.unit_pref: Metric
Settlement.population_total: 18,600
Settlement.population_as_of: 2012
Settlement.timezone: EAT
Settlement.utc_offset: +3
Settlement.blank_name: Climate

via Wikipedia infobox

Travel guide

Understand

Zeila was renowned for its ancient history and buildings, as it was a large city of the Adal Sultanate. The city did not escape the Civil War of the 1990s, and many of the monuments are badly damaged. Despite this, the government of Somaliland has been attempting to revive the tourism sector and promote visits to this forgotten place.

See

thumb|250px|The ancient Zeila Mosque, damaged by the Civil War but still standing. thumb|250px|A historic building in Zeila.

Go next

Djibouti - the border crossing is only a few kilometres away.

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~27 min read

Encyclopedic overview

15 sections

Contents

Geography
Foundation
History
Avalites
Ifat & Adal Sultanates
Early Modern Period
Haji Sharmarke and Pre Colonial Period
British and French Interest
British Somaliland
Early Folk Music
Present
Demographics
References
Sources
External links

Zeila (, ), also known as Zaila or Zayla, is a historical port town in the western Awdal region of Somaliland.

In the Middle Ages, the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela identified Zeila with the Biblical location of Havilah. Most modern scholars identify it with the site of Avalites mentioned in the 1st-century Greco-Roman travelogue the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and in Ptolemy, although this is disputed. The town evolved into an early Islamic center with the arrival of Muslims shortly after the Hijrah. By the 9th century, Zeila was the capital of the early Adal Kingdom and Ifat Sultanate in the 13th century, it would attain its height of prosperity a few centuries later in the 16th century. The city subsequently came under Ottoman and British protection in the 16th and 19th centuries respectively.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Zeila” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.