A mountain range running behind the Gulf of Aden coast, topping out at 2,410 metres near Shimbiris, northwest of Erigavo. Fog and winter rain give the forest at 700 to 800 metres between 750 and 850 mm a year, which in this part of the world is a different planet from the ground below it, and the result is roughly a thousand plant species of which about 200 grow nowhere else. The animals are as narrow: the Warsangli linnet, the beira antelope, gazelle subspecies found only here. Juniperus procera and Buxus hildebrandtii hold the slopes, and the lavender and locust bean found here tie the highlands to the Mediterranean, which is a strange thing to find in Somalia. An Uppsala University survey in 1995 turned up about eight plant species new to science and recommended the forest be made a national monument. Sanaag.
Sanaag, Somaliland
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