Geography of Somalia Geography of Somalia Somalia is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean and Guardafui Channel to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. With a land area of 637,657 square kilometers, Somalia's terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Its coastline is more than 3,333 kilometers in length, the longest of mainland Africa and the Middle East. It has been described as being roughly shaped "like a tilted number seven". In the far north, the rugged
Culture of Somalia Culture of Somalia The culture of Somalia is an amalgamation of traditions in that were developed independently and through interaction with neighboring and far away civilizations, including other parts of Africa, Northeast Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Southeast Asia. The cultural diffusion of Somali commercial enterprise can be detected in its exotic cuisine, which contains Southeast Asian influences. Due to the Somali people's passionate love for and facility with poetry, Somalia has often been referred to as a "Nation of Poets" and a "Nation of Bards", as, for example, by the Canadian novelist Margaret Laurence. Somalis have a story-telling tradition.