Sailing Around Erethraean Sea: Four

Updated 01/11/2024

Below Ptolemais of Hunts, at a distance of about three thousand stadia from Berenice there is Adulis, a port established by law, lying at the inner end of a bay that runs in toward the south. Before the harbour lies the so called Mountain island, about two hundred stadia sea-ward from the very head of the bay, with the shores of the mainland close to it on both sides. Ships bound for this port now anchor here because of attacks from land. They used formerly to anchor at the very head of the bay, by an island called Diodorus, close to the shore, which could be reached on foot from the land; by which means the barbarous natives attacked the island. Opposite Mountain island, on the mainland twenty stadia from shore, lies Adulis, a fair sized village from which there is a three days'journey to Coloe, an inland town and the first market for ivory. From that place to the city of the people called Auxumites, there is a five days' journey more; to that place all the ivory is brought from the country beyond the Nile through the city called Cyeneum, and thence to Adulis. Practically the whole number of elephants and rhinoceros that are killed live in the places inland, although at rare intervals they are hunted on the sea coast even near Adulis. Before the harbour of that market town, out at sea on the right hand, there lie a great many little sandy islands called Alalaei yielding tortoise shell, which is brought to market there by the fish eaters.

My Search:-

1.Ptolemais of Hunts: ( Already mentioned in the preceding section) Bay of Anfile or Amphila Bay on the Red Sea, on the coast of Eritrea. (For more details see the foregoing Paras.)

2. Adulis: Modern day Zula. It was an ancient city and port along the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Zula. Its ruins lie within the modern Eritrean city of Zula, which is on the northern bank of Aligide River. It is near the head of Annesley bay, or Gulf of Zula. Four kilometres away is its archeological site, Mistiwa or Massawa, beside the Dhalak islands. East of Zula the river splits into two, causing an island, which is Diodorus,named after the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus.


3. Berenice: (Already mentioned in section 2) Berenice Troglodytica or Berenike, Baranis is an ancient sea port of Egypt on the western shore of Red Sea. It was founded in 275 BCE by Ptolemy II Philadelphus who named after his mother Berenice of Egypt. Look at Google Maps: Berenice lies  upon a  narrow rim of shore between a long promontory and the Red Sea. An isthmus connected to the promontory is staring at Berenice like a serpent's tongue. The word Troglodytica means the native cave dwellers of the locality. In the second to first centuries of BCE it was a trading post for merchants from Rome, Arabia and India.

4. Coloe: Modern day Quseer, south of Cairo, on the western coast of Red Sea, in  Egypt. According to Casson it is the first trading post for ivory. (This was mentioned in section 1 as Mussel Harbour or Mayos Hormoz.)

5. Auxumites: the inhabitants of Auxum. Auxum was a locality in Tigray region of Ethiopia. Auxum began as a trading post, and later became an empire. The Auxumite empire occupied the entire Tigray region. The exact location of Auxum is Modern day Ras el Hilal, Libya. It is nearly opposite of Greece, on the northern coast of Mediterranean sea.

6. Cyeneum: Ancient Greek settlement on the coast of Libya. 

7. Alalaei: Ancient port city located on Red Sea coast of modern day Eritrea. Now identified as Debealuwa, opposite Zula on the right side.

8. Oreine is the Greek term for Mountain Island as per Lionel Casson. This is a Peninsula, is in the Northern Red Sea Region, and there is north of it Dhalak Islands.


The End of the Section 


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