Punt

Punt, in ancient Egyptian and Greek geography, the southern coast of the Red Sea and adjacent coasts of the Gulf of Aden, corresponding to modern coastal Ethiopia and Djibouti.

To the ancients, Punt was a place of legend and fable, illustrated by Herodotus’ account (in Book II of his History, 5th century bc) of the exploits of an Egyptian pharaoh, one Sesostris, who took a fleet of ships and made conquests along the shores of the Erythraean Sea (the Red Sea and adjacent waters) and then traversed “the whole continent of Asia.”

Historically verified is an expedition made during the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Pepi II Neferkare about 2200 bc to the land of Punt, as are voyages undertaken during the 11th dynasty (2081–1938 bc). Queen Hatshepsut (reigned c. 1472–1458 bc) made a voyage to Punt and had the details of the journey recorded on the walls of her temple at Dayr al-Bahrī. Voyages to the “Divine Land” eventually became routine. The so-called Ethiopian dynasty—the 25th—which came from the south to rule Egypt in 716–656 bc, has sometimes been used in an attempt to prove an even closer connection between Egypt and Ethiopia, but these invaders came in fact from Nubia (Cush).

The designation “Ethiopian” was first used by ancient Greek writers to describe any African with more or less dark skin. Their concept of the land whence these dark-skinned inhabitants derived sometimes comprised the whole African continent and sometimes only what is now Ethiopia. Only after Alexander the Great and the ascension of the Ptolemies to the throne of ancient Egypt late in the 4th century bc were the trade routes to Punt opened to the Greeks. Thereafter, manuals of navigation were compiled and depots were constructed along the coast, where ivory, skins, ostrich feathers, and even live elephants could be housed. A stela inscribed with hieroglyphs, put up in Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (reigned 285–246 bc) and found at Pithon, refers to Ptolemy’s founding the city of Ptolemais Theron on the Erythraean coast. Eratosthenes later recorded a reference to what may have been Ethiopia’s Lake Tana (known to the Greeks as Psebo, or Koloë) and to its island, Dak. Agatharchides, a Greek historian and geographer of the 2nd century bc, observed the habits of cave dwellers in Punt; and Artemidorus, a Greek geographer of about 100 bc, described the coast’s configuration, naming various ports, and the desert region of Danakil, where he indicated the existence of certain lakes—possibly Assal (in present-day Djibouti) and Awsa (in Ethiopia). Beyond lay an incense-producing region, and beyond that was what can perhaps be identified as the district of Harer and the Valley of Awash (both now in Ethiopia). But no one really knew the interior of the country, where, except for great rivers such as the Astaboras (Tekeze) and lakes such as Psebo, there was only speculation.