Hargeisa (Somali: Hargaysa, Arabic: هرجيسا) is the second-largest city in Somalia, located in the Woqooyi Galbeed region. Hargeisa is the capital of Somaliland, a self-declared republic that is internationally recognized as an autonomous region of Somalia. It was the colonial capital of the British Somaliland protectorate from 1941 to 1960, when it gained independence as the State of Somaliland and united with Italian Somaliland to form the Somali Republic.