Garowe sits in the Nugal Valley at around 500 metres elevation — one of the reasons the city was chosen as Puntland's capital is the cooler climate compared to the sweltering coast. The valley is semi-arid but not barren: after the rains, the hills turn green, and the landscape of scattered acacia and frankincense trees on rocky terrain is striking.
Frankincense (Boswellia) trees grow wild in this part of Somalia — the country is one of the world's main producers, and the resin has been harvested here since antiquity. The camel caravans that once carried it north to the Horn of Africa coast no longer travel, but the trade continues. Driving or walking out of the city into the surrounding hills gives a sense of the ancient landscape that made this region the fabled land of Punt in Egyptian records.