An archaeological site 14 km west of Dikhil in Djibouti: a dry-stone village of round houses inside compound walls, with in 1970 the foundations of stone houses and of a building with a recess facing Mecca, an iron and copper workshop, glass beads and bracelets, mother-of-pearl pendants, hundreds of cowries and a Chinese coin, the first found in an excavation in the Horn.
It shows herders turning to stone building and trading with the coast in the medieval period; the StateHorn excavators (de Torres Rodriguez and others, 2023) found two phases and call it a significant urban centre on the medieval routes from the Gulf of Tadjoura into the interior, but their dates were not available in what was read, so whether it was lived in on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.
Who holds it
- Title
- Village site
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Charter
None (no charters in this world).
Council
Not recorded.
Communities
Not recorded.
Fairs and markets
Not recorded.
Militia
None recorded.
Walls and castle
None recorded.
Trade and crafts
Iron and copper working; beads and cowries from the coast.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Excavated, dates not read.
On the map: A point.
Primary sources for Afar
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The History of the Observant Traveller: the pages on Zeila, Berbera, Mogadishu and Dahlak, Ibn al-Mujawir (Yusuf ibn Yaqub ibn al-Mujawir) (about 1221 to 1230). The closest description of the Horn's ports to 1200, written about twenty-five years later by a trader and official who worked the Aden trade: Zeila and its traffic in slaves, ivory and the goods of the Ethiopian interior; the Barbar (Somali) coast with Berbera and Mogadishu, and the sea route from Aden to Mogadishu and on to Kilwa with its sailing seasons; the Dahlak islands with their own sultan and his dues; Socotra; and the customs and prices of Aden under the Ayyubids of Yemen. Read online
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia: Handoga
- de Torres Rodriguez and others, The medieval town of Handoga (Djibouti): a report of the 2021 field season, Journal of Global Archaeology 2023 (abstract)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.