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