 Nathaniel Pearce, who was living in Tigray at the time, notes that Soqota was where "Ras" Haile Wand Bewossen had his palace in 1813, and performed his annual review of his troops on 17 Masqaram, as was the custom.Charles Beke, who passed through Soqota in April 1843, described it as "a place of considerable size but is so very straggling that it is not easy to form a definite idea on the subject.It has a large market, held on Tuesday and Wednesday weekly, which is frequented by the merchants of the south and west, this place is the grand center of the salt-trade, the Tigre merchants coming thus far only, and then returning."