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Mogadishu is the country's largest city, a seaport, and a commercial and financial center. Its principal industries are food and beverages, and textiles. The city is linked by road with Kenya and Ethiopia and has an international airport. Among its historic buildings are the Mosque of Fakr ad-Din ( 1269) and Garesa Palace , built in the late 19th century for the local administrator of the sultan of Zanzibar and now housing a museum and library. Mogadishu is the seat of the Somalia National University.

Mogadishu was settled by Arab colonists c.900, and by the early 12th century had become an important trade center for the east coast of Africa. It was visited by Zheng He's armada and came under the control of PortugalRepublica Portuguesa ( In Detail) National motto: None Official language Portuguese 3 Capital Lisbon President Jorge Sampaio Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes Area Total % water World ranking: 109th 92,391 km²0. 5 % Population Total ( 2004) Density World in the 16th century15th century 16th century 17th century more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. Events Beginning of the " Little Ice Age" a cooling period that resulted in lower crop yi. The origin of the name is unclear; one version claims it as the Somali version of the ArabicArabic is a Semitic language, fairly closely related to, for instance, the Hebrew language and the Aramaic language, spoken throughout the Arab world and widely known outside it. It has been a literary language for over 1500 years, and is the liturgical l name "maqad shah" (imperial seat of the shah), another version claims that it is a Somali version of the Swahili "mwyu ma" (last northern city).

In 1871Events January January 18 The member-states of the North German Confederation unite into a single nation-state known as the German Empire. The King of Prussia is declared the first German Emperor as Wilhelm I of Germany. January 28 France surrenders to en the city was occupied by the sultan of Zanzibar, who leased it to the ItaliansThe Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Italia is a country in the south of Europe, consisting mainly of a boot-shaped peninsula together with two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily and Sardinia. To the north, where it borders France, Switzer in 1892Events January 1 Ellis Island begins accepting immigrants to the United States. January 14 Death of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, second in line heir to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Next in line is his younger b. In 1905Events January-April January 22 Massacre of Russian demonstrators at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, one of the triggers of the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905. January 26 The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier Italy purchased the city and made it the capital of its colony of Italian Somaliland. Mogadishu was captured and occupied during World War II by British forces operating from Kenya. During Somalia's long civil war from the 1970s, rebel forces took the city in 1990. Intense battling between clan-based rebel factions damaged many parts of Mogadishu in 1991 and 1992. UN peacekeeping forces were stationed in the city between 1992 and 1995.

On October 3, 1993, an attempt by the United States Army to capture lieutenants of the warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid while successful, ended in disaster. In the ensuing battle, 19 American soldiers were killed and several dozen were injured. The events were later dramatised in the novel and film Black Hawk Down.

Today Mogadishu continues to be one of the world's most dangerous cities (see Attacks on humanitarian workers), as clan and faction fighting rages unabated. The city is also the seat of the internationally-recognized Transitional National Government, ostensibly an interim government for the entire nation of Somalia which in reality has no influence outside the radius of a few blocks beyond its headquarters.