Djibouti is located on the Horn of Africa, shares borders with Eritrea and Ethiopia, and has a coastline on the Red Sea. The country is mainly desert and is covered by extinct volcanoes and basalt flows. It has long been settled by Afar and Somali tribes. Djibouti became independent in the 1970s after it was colonized by the French in the nineteenth century when it was known as French Somaliland.