Shimbiris

Where is Shimbiris?

Shimbiris is part of the Cal Madow range, Sanaag region.

You will find it in: Somalia.

Summit: 10.735° N, 47.246° E

The story behind it

The Cal Madow mountains run like a long wall above the Gulf of Aden, and Shimbiris is their highest point. Warm air from the sea rises against this wall, cools down and turns into mist, so the upper slopes stay damp while the plains below bake in the sun. In that mist grow old juniper trees, aloes and frankincense bushes, and people cut the bark of the frankincense trees so that sticky resin runs out, dries into pale lumps and is later burned for its sweet smoke. Leopards, rock hyraxes and many birds live in the patches of forest, and some plants here grow nowhere else in the world. The summit itself is a broad stony hump rather than a sharp peak, reached on rough tracks from the villages of the Sanaag region.

Find it on the globe

Shimbiris is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.