History of Somalia The oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BC. The stone implements from the Jalelo site in the north were also characterized in 1909 as important artefacts demonstrating the archaeological universality during the Paleolithic between the East and the West. According to linguists, the first Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during the ensuing Neolithic period from the family's proposed urheimat ("original homeland") in the Nile Valley, or the Near East. Other scholars propose that the Afro-Asiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its
Masjid al-Qiblatayn (Somalia) Masjid al-Qiblatayn (Somalia) Masjid al-Qiblaṫayn (; "Mosque of the two Qiblahs") is a mosque in Zeila, situated in the northwestern Awdal region of Somalia. The mosque's construction dates to the 7th century CE, shortly after the "Hijrah" () of Muslims to what was then Abyssinia. It is one of the oldest mosques in Africa. It contains the tomb of Sheikh Babu Dena. Though now mostly in ruins, the edifice features two mihrabs: one oriented to the north toward Mecca, and the other oriented to the northwest toward Jerusalem. The construction of this Mosque is tied to the History of Islam