Recent port of the southern Red Sea at the outlet of the Strait of El Mandab Bad and the open GLOF of Aden, Djibouti OBOCK supplanted in the early twentieth century the ports of Assab (Ethiopia) and ZEILA (Somalia).
Initially called SAMBOCK from the XIVth century, then SANBOQ, ZARUQ, ZA'IMA, DONI Donk, Huri ... the French administration called them Boutre irrespective of size (10 to 25 meters).
Constructed and repaired primarily by Yemenis, very colorful and decorated with friezes, the dhows are traditional rice, spices, silk, tobacco, sugar, metals in India and Java and ivory, gold, hides, coffee, oil. .. the Horn of Africa and a major slave trafficking to Yemen. The last building in Djibouti was launched in 1978, there remain thirty active.