The "downtown", the historic heart
The city centre includes the two oldest districts, in the colonial terminology still used: the European district with its Moorish buildings and its grid of streets around the 27-June Square (or Menelik Square), and the African district around the old Central Market (the Caisses and the Souk) and Mahmoud Harbi Square. It is the most picturesque district of Djibouti and the heart of the capital's nightlife.
The 27-June Square (Menelik Square).
This is where everything revolves. Around it is a small grid of streets that intersect at right angles. Many streets are named after foreign capitals or cities: Paris, Brussels, Rome, Athens, London, Moscow, Geneva, Marseille... But some of these names have changed in recent years, so that we don't really know what to call them anymore. Various shops, restaurants, cafés, offices line all these streets. Some of the facades and storefronts are very colorful, which embellishes these low-rise buildings, of very different styles, with often faded walls. In summer, when the sun hits, the walls are dazzling, too white, too exposed. The shape of the windows seems to change with each building: square, rectangular, arched. One hesitates between European and Arab influences.These axes, as sleepy as the rest of the country in the afternoon, come alive in the morning and evening. Terraces seem to have been set up at all the strategic points and allow you to contemplate life as it passes by.
Rue de Marseille and Rue Marchand
are home to many offices and lead straight to Place Lagarde. This large tree-lined intersection is the headquarters of the country's two major banks. It is also home to the city centre clinic. This makes it a very busy place. At one end, you will see the National Assembly, which "announces" the Boulevard de la République and the Ministries district.South of the Place du 27-Juin,
the streets have fewer offices and more shops. Rue de Paris and Rue d'Ethiopie are very lively, lined with small restaurants and various shops, both leading to the Central Market. In these streets, you can eat local, Yemeni, Ethiopian, Indian, Vietnamese, French, Italian. Avenue Clemenceau intersects these two axes and joins, to the east, the discreet but vast Saïd Hassan Mosque, whose minaret, like a small lighthouse, creates a pretty perspective all along Rue de Londres. This whole area around the 27-June square remains lively late at night, especially when the sailors are numerous. They invade the bars and discos of the city. If you like the atmosphere (so fascinating in books but not always in life) of the "sailors-military-prostitutes" evenings, the show will interest you. Be careful though, it can get out of hand...The Central Market and the African quarter.
This vast double square, the real heart of the capital, is dominated by the small minaret of the Great Mosque. A few steps in the grid of the first streets of the "African quarter", to the south and east of the square, will take you to a sort of large village, among shops of all kinds. The smell of fish grilled by Yemeni cooks mingles with that of incense and burnt tires. The gargotes where one eats in the street follow the tailors (numerous along the Rue aux Mouches), jewellers, craftsmen, hairdressers (with outdoor beard trimming) or repairers. There are also stalls selling zinc, and further on there are garage owners. As in a Yemeni or Syrian souk, everything seems to be arranged by category, but with less rigour. The smell of burning incense is omnipresent.From the Mahmoud Harbi square,
one leaves towards the south following the Afars street. Along this street, as well as at the crossroads at the corner of Avenue 13, you will see some pretty colonial houses with their coloured arcades. One will recognize in particular the very white Ecole franco-islamique. Continuing southwards, in the axis of the rue des Afars, you will see the Engueila or Arhiba housing estates, built in the 1970s by the French administration. These apartment blocks of a few floors came to replace areas formerly occupied by traditional huts that the Afars and the Issas came from the interior of the country. From the crossroads of the Djibouti Hotel, by Avenue 13, one joins the long Avenue De-Gaulle to the east. Avenue 13 is lined with many stalls selling a bit of everything, including tons of second-hand clothes, which pile up in small mountains. In the evening, invaded by a crowd happy to finally be able to "breathe", it becomes a vast and colorful market with countless small restaurants.Presidential and ministerial quarters, Boulevard de la République.
To the north and west of the European quarter are the main decision-making places of the country. From Cheikh Osman boulevard (formerly Saint-Laurent-du-Var) to the Bellevue Hotel, you pass in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a building of little interest, before reaching the very flowery presidential palace. Behind sparkling white walls stands a vast building built by Yemeni architects, hence its Arabic style. The street that runs alongside the palace becomes Government Pier (also known as Administrator's Avenue, now closed to the public) and leads to the Port of Call and the harbour. These roads, surrounded by the sea, are pleasant walks in the evening. There are a few cafes and restaurants frequented by the locals.Plateau du Serpent, the "expat" neighbourhood
This peninsula with its many points, north of the current city centre, was once made up of various islands and peninsulas connected to each other and to the mainland only at low tide. The Serpent plateau was the first to be connected to the mainland by an embankment (the current Boulevard de la République), followed by the Marabout plateau, and finally the Heron islet, which was more recently connected to the rest of the city.
The international port (installed at the Marabout), the Escale (from where the shuttles to Tadjourah, Obock and the islands leave), the fishing port and the west of the city (at the level of the Salines) are now linked by long piers (including the Venice road) which cross a sea of oil that has become an artificial lagoon, thus facilitating traffic.
In this posh residential area, one appreciates the calm and greenery. Large trees sometimes protect the squares. And from all the gardens (enclosed by walls and barbed wire) of the villas and embassies (France and Ethiopia in particular), the branches of colourful flowering trees overflow onto the streets. The birds are numerous and seem to ensure the animation of the district. The atmosphere is quite European.
In the center of the district extends a vast bare square, dusty and absolutely not shaded. It is popular with stray dogs and noisy mantled crows. Football and basketball are played there when it is not too hot. The Snake plateau is almost surrounded by the sea: to the north, to the east, to the south. It is an area of beaches. The beach of La Siesta, in the south, is bordered by the railway. White sand and mud mingle there. It is especially appreciated by birds. The Tritons beach, near the Sheraton, is more pleasant. These two sites are very popular with Djiboutians, who flock there from all parts of the city. They chat, picnic and play. But there is little swimming.
The Marabou and the Heron
Cheikh Osman Boulevard runs north to the free zone, the Marabout. It crosses a vast institutional district where, in the middle of large bare spaces, stand modern buildings (or those that have been), some of them monumental: Radio Télévision de Djibouti, the Ministerial City, the Palais du Peuple, the National Police and, further on, the Saudi High School and its vast mosque. At the same time, starting from the Place Lagarde, the Boulevard de la République reaches the Plateau du Serpent. All this wooded area hosts large administrative buildings. It is also a residential area, with the Republic housing estate. The Djibouti Cathedral, of rather modest size, is also located on Boulevard de la République, on the site of the former Jeanne d'Arc Church.
The district is dominated by a pretty minaret. The railway line ended here, at the port. It seems that this is the meeting point of all the traders and wholesalers of the country. Trucks, vans and 4x4s follow one another incessantly to be loaded with all kinds of goods. The trucks often queue up, waiting to be loaded. A small market, modest and colorful, is held there: fruit and vegetable sellers, various objects and many small "restaurants" of fortune, where one sits on the ground or on small stools to taste spaghettis for example. Hairdresser or table football in the open air complete the decor.
Haramous and the aviation district
Coming from the city centre, you can reach Haramous by taking the very long Charles-de-Gaulle Avenue or the Siesta Road. You go along the Boulaos area, one of the oldest residential districts of the city, where the low white walls are still in the majority. The architectural horizontality of the place is barely broken by the many small minarets of the mosques.
A little further south, for several kilometres, where the Eastern Salt Works once stretched, the vast Gabod business zone (where the French high school is located) is now developing, where a few small factories are mixed with numerous warehouses. A residential area, mostly made up of complexes for military families, completes the district.
The district of Haramous itself is located to the east by the sea, around the American embassy. Quite recent, it is composed of huge villas - flashy buildings between castles and Arab palaces - built in the early 2000s when Dubai was investing in Djibouti.
