Author : Domenico Patassini1 with Kebebaw Berhanu2
Year : 2004
A survey à vol d’oiseau
Some 15 kms from Dire Dawa on the way to Dengego, Haräla is probably a XIII century town that
sized nearly half sqkm. Walled, it was the capital of the Haräla3 kingdom located in between the
Indian Ocean and the highlands of Ethiopia. It has developed for long time commercial links with
Zeila, a sea town and a strategic door to the middle and far east. Through that, nilotic, high and low
lands cultures of Ethiopia were easily intermingled with those from Arabia peninsula, other
countries of Middle East, India and far East, as confirmed by chronicles of the time.