The Land of Punt
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| Source: De Agostini Picture |
By Evan Andrews
Few African civilizations are as mysterious as Punt. Historical
accounts of the kingdom date to around 2500 B.C., when it appears in Egyptian
records as a “Land of the Gods” rich in ebony, gold, myrrh and exotic animals
such as apes and leopards. The Egyptians are known to have sent huge caravans
and flotillas on trade missions to Punt—most notably during the 15th century
B.C. reign of Queen
Hatshepsut—yet they never identified where it was located.
The site of the fabled kingdom is now a hotly debated topic
among scholars. The Arabian Peninsula and Arabian Peninsula have both been proposed as
potential candidates, but most believe it existed somewhere on the Red Sea
coast of East Africa. In 2010, a team of researchers tried to zero in on Punt
by analysing a mummified baboon that its rulers once gifted to the Egyptian pharaohs.
While their results showed that the remains most closely matched animals found
in modern day Ethiopia and Eritrea, the precise location of the Land of Punt
has still yet to be confirmed.
Source: History
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