Mogadishu, (Italian Mogadiscio), city in southeastern Somalia, capital of the country and of Benadir Region, on the Indian Ocean, just north of the equator. Also called Muqdisho, it is the nation's largest city and chief seaport. The city is also the country's leading commercial and manufacturing center, though economic activity has been seriously disrupted by the nation's civil war, which escalated in the early 1990s. Before then, exports passing through the modern deepwater port included livestock, bananas, and hides and skins. The principal manufactures of the city were processed food (especially meat and fish), leather, wood products, and textiles. Among its points of interest are a 13th-century mosque and the National Museum (housed in Garesa Palace, built in the 19th century by the sultan of Zanzibar). Institutions of higher education here include the Somali National University (1954) and schools of industry and veterinary medicine; however, all these institutions have closed because of the war.
Mogadishu was founded about the early 10th century by Arab merchants; by the 12th century it had become a substantial trade center. A long period of decline began in the 16th century, and in 1871 the city came under the control of the sultan of Zanzibar. Italy leased the port in 1892 and in 1905 purchased the city, subsequently making it the capital of Italian Somaliland. Mogadishu became the capital of independent Somalia in 1960.
