DJIBOUTI COUNTRY GUIDE · reviewed 29 October 2026 SCOPE Sixteen selected cities and towns, eight complete named waters, twelve heritage and landscape learning locations, ten illustrated reading topics, thirty answered reading questions and eighty reviewed facts questions. Existing Somali, French and Arabic courses are linked; there is no dedicated Afar course. Language choices do not represent every household. READING AND FACT REVIEW Djibouti Ministry of Foreign Affairs: colonial names, independence and the separate 1994 and 2001 agreements in the civil conflict. https://diplomatie.gouv.dj/djibouti-historique Djibouti Presidency: constitution, official languages and public institutions. https://www.presidence.dj/page/constitution The constitution describes legal institutions, not a measurement of political freedom or the implementation of every provision. No undated incumbent quiz. World Bank: economic structure, Ethiopia corridor and water constraints. https://www.worldbank.org/ext/en/country/djibouti Djibouti National Tourism Agency: culture, food and locations. https://guide.visitdjibouti.dj/la-population/ https://guide.visitdjibouti.dj/gastronomie-djiboutienne/ https://www.egouv.dj/sousmenu/sousmenu_selected_article/178/13 UNESCO: no inscribed World Heritage property and ten tentative entries as checked today. Tentative listing is separate from inscription. https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/dj/ https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5959/ (Lake Assal) https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5960/ (Moucha and Maskali) UNHCR: refugee origins, host communities and inclusion, without live totals. https://www.unhcr.org/where-we-work/countries/djibouti IGAD: secretariat address in Djibouti City. https://igad.int/contact-us/ China State Council Information Office: overseas support base opened in 2017. https://english.scio.gov.cn/featured/chinakeywords/2021-11/10/content_77863858.htm Additional stable names and background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djibouti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djiboutian_cuisine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Lemonnier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afar_language The reviewed questions avoid the unsupported claim that the original Planet of the Apes was filmed at Lake Abbe, changing population percentages, universal business hours, and a simple two-ethnic-group account of civil war. Answer choices have comparable lengths and correct positions are balanced, twenty in each slot. Original source options qualify every correction so same-worded questions in other courses are preserved. Seed data, lesson and question IDs, and saved progress are retained; no database reseed is needed. WATERS: NATURAL ENDPOINTS ACROSS BORDERS FAO: Lake Abbe is shared by Ethiopia and Djibouti, receives the Awash and has no outflow. Assal and Ghoubbet are separate waters. https://www.fao.org/4/T0361E/T0361E03.htm NASA Earth Observatory: shared lake and the terminal chain of Awash lakes. https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/lake-abbe-and-dama-ali-35573/ World Bank: Awash originates near Ginchi in Ethiopia’s central highlands and terminates in the Lake Abbe basin. River length estimates are approximate. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099720004122238008/pdf/P1763270addef80a09deb004f71d19ea11.pdf Water base geometry: Natural Earth 1:10m, v5.1.2, public domain, accessed 29 October 2026. Detailed coastal cutouts are ODbL 1.0, as below. https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/ https://github.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/tree/v5.1.2/geojson Layers: admin_0_countries, land, ocean, lakes, geography_marine_polys, rivers_lake_centerlines. Selected final snapshots are retained in scripts/djibouti-outline-source.geojson and scripts/djibouti-water-source.geojson. Awash segments are retained in scripts/ethiopia-water-source.geojson as well. Lake Abbe is retained in full on both sides of the border. Lake Assal is a separate complete lake within Djibouti. Generalised shores are historical reference geometry, not current water extents or water-quality information. The Awash mainstem is reconnected from Natural Earth source reaches, joining sub-200-metre coordinate gaps, from [38.075206, 8.970649] to [41.683849, 11.199652] at Lake Abbe. Channels through upstream lakes and reservoirs are retained. It is an Ethiopian feeder to a shared lake, not a river running through Djibouti; tributaries are not all mapped. The complete Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Bab el Mandeb are selected from named marine polygons, with Natural Earth land and islands removed, supplemented by the detailed OpenStreetMap Djibouti coast and islands. The resulting adapted waters database is available under ODbL 1.0; the underlying Natural Earth data remains public domain. The Red Sea ends towards the separately named Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba; it is not clipped at Djibouti’s northern border. The Gulf of Aden reaches the Arabian Sea near Cape Guardafui, well east of Djibouti. Bab el Mandeb is a separate target. Natural Earth encodes this named strait as narrow multipart boundary ribbons. Its approximate outer envelope is reconstructed as their convex hull intersected with the ocean, with land and islands removed, so the central passage is selectable. These are approximate geographic limits, rather than a legal strait definition. Geographic context: the passage connects Africa and Arabia and is divided by Perim into the Large and Small Straits. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/857994/files/A_CONF_13_37.pdf The full Ghoubbet is cut from the ocean layer west of 42.69 E; the full Gulf of Tadjoura continues east from that mouth to a representative line between [43.17, 11.60] on the capital peninsula and [43.29, 11.97] near Obock. Nested named waters have separate non-overlapping interiors so one tap has one target. Their mouth lines are approximate geographic teaching limits, not national borders, navigational limits, maritime claims or EEZs. The map starts around Djibouti; unrestricted zoom-out permits following waters to their natural lakes, mouths and wider sea limits. No permanent river is invented from an ephemeral Djiboutian wadi. LAND, CITIES AND SIGHTS Land outline: copyright OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0, accessed 29 October 2026. Relation 192801 supplies land borders; coastline ways from the Geofabrik Djibouti extract close the mainland and island rings. Territorial-sea polygons are not included. Coordinates are simplified by 0.00005 degrees (about six metres). Islands within the country relation, including Moucha and Maskali, are retained. The outline is a reference map, not a determination of disputed borders or sovereignty. https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/192801 https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright https://download.geofabrik.de/africa/djibouti.html https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/ City coordinates are selected OpenStreetMap settlement nodes in scripts/djibouti-map-places.json, with node IDs retained for provenance. The adapted city database is also ODbL 1.0. They are approximate settlement centres, not administrative polygons. Island sight pins lie on mapped land. The water thumbnail overlaps the detailed outline with the generalised Natural Earth country outline used by neighbouring thumbnail land, avoiding false water seams at their different scales. This is a decorative preview; the playable map retains the detailed outline and complete water geometry. Name variants: Tadjourah/Tadjoura, Holhol/Holl-Holl, As Eyla/As Eila. Sights use representative positions and Wikipedia article references in src/lib/country-sights/djibouti.json. Large lakes, forests and landscapes cannot be represented in their entirety by one pin. Pins are learning locations, not entrances or current-access assessments. Refugee-hosting communities are not presented as tourist sights. PHOTOGRAPHS The ten existing credited local photographs are reused from src/lib/african-facts-heroes.json, DJ. Each topic retains its Commons source, creator and licence. Files are in public/images/facts-africa/dj/. The Lake Abbe landscape is also the guide cover. geography: The saltwater landscape of Lake Assal, Djibouti https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lake_Assal_1-Djibouti.jpg Fishercd, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons history: Hamoudi Mosque in Djibouti City https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hamoudi_Mosque,_Djibouti_City_(Jan._2008).jpg Tyke, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons language: The University of Djibouti https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Universit%C3%A9_de_Djibouti,_Djibouti_-_panoramio.jpg Abass Chirdon, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons culture: An International Women’s Day celebration in Djibouti City https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Djibouti_City_International_Womens_Day_Celebration_2024_(8276959).jpg U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Juan Paz, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons economy: Fishing boats and the container terminal at Djibouti port https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Djibouti_Port.JPG CharlesFred, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons politics: The presidential palace overlooking the harbour, Djibouti https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Djibouti_Presidential_Palace_(145950084).jpg Keo the Younger from Spokane, USA!, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons nature: The Day Forest near Tadjourah, Djibouti https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_for%C3%AAt_de_Day_-_Tadjourah-_Djibouti.jpg Anai171, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons food: A cooking lesson at Arta Culinary School, Djibouti https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Culinary_exchange,_Arta,_Djibouti,_March_2011_(5536449009).jpg US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons landmarks: Limestone chimneys at Lake Abbe, Djibouti https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lac_Abbe-01.JPG Rolf Cosar, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons people: A street in Djibouti City https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Djibouti_street.jpg Tristan Denyer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons REBUILD AND VERIFICATION node scripts/build-djibouti-map.mjs node scripts/test-djibouti-guide.cjs DJIBOUTI_BASE_URL=https://worldly.academy node scripts/test-djibouti-guide.cjs The rebuild reads only committed snapshots and needs no network access.