A stone-built Muslim town about 35 km north-west of Harar and close to Dire Dawa, on the edge of the plateau above the plains that run down to Zeila, excavated by Timothy Insoll's team in 2015-2017.
Its occupation runs from about the tenth to the early fifteenth century, with radiocarbon dates of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It had a twelfth-century mosque of a type also found in Somaliland and southern Tanzania, Islamic burials with headstones, and a jewellery workshop making delicate pieces of silver, bronze, glass beads and semi-precious stone by techniques known in India. Imports came from Egypt (coins), Yemen, India, China (pottery and coins), the Maldives and Madagascar (pottery), with cowries, rock crystal and carnelian: a cosmopolitan mixture of foreigners and local people, linked to the Gulf of Aden through Zeila.
On 1 January 1200 it is the chief known town of the Harar plateau, in the period of its radiocarbon dates. Local tradition makes it a town of the Harla, the giants who built the old towns.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known: its notables are not recorded
- Title
- Town of the Harla
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
No lord recorded; a self-governing trading town of the Harla, as far as can be told.
How things stand that morning
A thriving trading town; no war recorded.
Council
Not recorded.
Communities
Muslim townspeople of local and foreign origin; the camel bones of the oldest layers suggest founders who were camel herders.
Fairs and markets
Not recorded.
Militia
Not recorded.
Walls and castle
None recorded.
Trade and crafts
Jewellery of silver, bronze, glass and stone; trade in imported cloth, glass, beads, cowries and pottery; exports probably of the interior's goods (ivory, slaves, gold, civet) towards Zeila (not itemised by the excavators).
Where the sources disagree
- The press reports of 2017 speak of Egyptian coins of the thirteenth century; if so, some imports are later than 1200. The town's own government is unknown.
Evidence: Recent excavations with radiocarbon dates and well-sourced imports.
On the map: The tierra is a guess at the town's near land.
Sources and studies
- Sci.News (June 2017): Archaeologists unearth ancient, forgotten city in eastern Ethiopia (Harlaa; Insoll's excavations)
- Insoll and others, First footsteps in the archaeology of Harar, Ethiopia, Journal of Islamic Archaeology (abstract)
- Wikipedia: Harla people
- GeoNames (coordinates of Abasa ruins, Amud, Aw Barkhadle mosque, Harla, Haylan, Alula, Dahlak-Kebir)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.