Villa Mogadishu

This building was created by the Italians to serve as an artistic building that also had advantages in location. The building was built in 1936 atop a large hill in Mogadishu. From the well built and artistic windows, a person can overlook both the Port of Mogadishu and the local airport. The building's use was for glamour, but could also have been used for its use as a headquarters for the Italian Somaliland because of its advantages over the land. After WWII, the building became the home of the President of Somalia and in 1960, the President laid down his head to rest for the first time in the building.

Fast forward 60 years and astonishingly the building serves the same purpose as it did in the beginning. Now a government building, the President uses it as sort of the "White House" ideas. Tourists also come to acknowledge the beautifully built structure with many high arcs and tiled roof. The President of Mogadishu now lives in this beautiful place and tries to run the city as best he can. Unfortunately, as said at previous stops, the city is under so much turmoil that the security of the leader is always a question and this prevents people from touring the historic site.

Brons, M. H. (2001). Society, security, sovereignty, and the state in Somalia: from statelessness to statelessness?. s.n.

“Villa Somalia.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, November 25, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Somalia.

Fergusson, James. The World's Most Dangerous Place. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2013.