Laas Geel: Heritage world’s best-kept secret

Hargiesa, Somaliland: As we drive along on the thin layer of pock-marked asphalt that passes for a ‘highway’, a rusty, fading sign directs us in the general direction of ‘Laas Geel’. We are about 40km outside Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, a self-declared independent republic that the international community and the government in Mogadishu consider a part of Somalia.

We go off the ‘highway’, and into the semi-desert environment that is so evocative of the Horn of Africa region. The shiny Japanese 4WD has no trouble navigating the rock-strewn and gravel-laden track and, after bouncing about for over half an hour, we reach a ‘checkpoint’ in the middle of absolutely nowhere. It’s made up of old blankets thrown on top of standing wooden logs to make a canopy, with a bored gunman seated on a plastic chair inside.

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