El Wak (; var. Ceel Waaq) is a
divided city on the
Somalia-
Kenya border. The Somali portion is located in the southwestern
Gedo region of
Jubaland
Jubaland ( so, Jubbaland, ar, , it, Oltregiuba), the Juba Valley ( so, Dooxada Jubba) or Azania ( so, Asaaniya, ar, ), is a Federal Member State in southern Somalia. Its eastern border lies east of the Jubba River, stretching from Gedo t ...
state, where it is the seat of one of the region's seven districts.
Etymology
The place name "CeelWaaq" literally translates as "God's well". In the
Afro-Asiatic
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
Somali language
Somali (Latin script: ; Wadaad writing, Wadaad: ; Osmanya: 𐒖𐒍 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘 ) is an Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic languages, Cushitic branch. It is spoken as a mother tongue by Somalis in ...
, the word ''Ceel'' means "well" and the word ''Waaq'' comes from ''Waaq'', an archaic Somali term for God.
[Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, ''Culture and Customs of Somalia'', (Greenwood Publishing Group: 2001), p.65.]
Location
El Wak is situated in the
El Wak District. It is bordered by the
Bardera and
Garbaharey
}, Maay: ''Garbiharey'', ) is the capital of Gedo, an administrative region in southern Somalia. It is the third largest and most populous city in Gedo region after Bardera and Luuq.
History
During the Middle Ages, Garbahare and its surrounding ...
districts on the east, and the Somali-inhabited
North Eastern Province to the west.
References
{{Somalia-geo-stub
Populated places in Somalia