Transport in Mogadishu
In Mogadishu, water transport remains fundamental to the city's existence. As Ibn Battuta noted: [Mogadishu] is a town endless in its size. Its people have many camels, of which they slaughter hundreds every day and they have many sheep. Its people are powerful merchants. In it are manufactured the cloths named after it which have no rival, and are transported as far as Egypt and elsewhere. One of the customs of the people of this city is that when a ship arrives at the anchorage, the sunbuqs (small boats) come out to it. In every sunbuq is a group of young people of the town, and every one of them brings a covered dish with food in it. He offers it to one of the merchants of the ship and says ‘This is my guest.’ Each one of them does similarly. When the merchant disembarks from the ship he goes nowhere but to the house of his host from among these young people. But a mean who has frequented the place a good deal and obtained a knowledge of its people may lodge where he wishes. Wh
