# The Somali ports in the Periplus, 1st century AD: Avalites, Malao, Mundus, Mosylon and Opone > The Somali coast in the 1st-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: each port, what it traded, where it was, and what archaeologists later found there. Source page: https://calankii.com/en/history/periplus-somali-ports-1st-century/ Last checked: 2026-11-12 Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com) ## In short The *Periplus of the Erythraean Sea* is a Greek handbook for merchants sailing from Roman Egypt into the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Its author is unknown. Most scholars date it to the 1st century AD; the archaeologist Neville Chittick preferred the 2nd or early 3rd century ([Chittick 1979, *International Journal of Nautical Archaeology* 8.4, p. 273](https://www.ancientportsantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents/PLACES/IndOc-Gulf/Somalia-Chittick1979.pdf)). Sections 7 to 14 of the book walk along the north coast of today's Somali lands, port by port, from the [Gulf of Aden](/en/relations/yemen/) round Cape Guardafui to Ras Hafun. The text calls the people of this coast *Barbaroi* (Berbers) and their land the "far-side" coast, because it lay across the sea from Arabia. The quotations below are from W. H. Schoff's 1912 English translation ([Schoff, *The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea*, 1912, pp. 25–28](https://archive.org/details/cu31924030139236)). ## How the coast was governed The Periplus says the far-side coast had no single ruler: > "This country is not subject to a King, but each market-town is ruled by its separate chief." (§14) Ships came from Egypt "about the month of July", and also from western India, from Ariaca and Barygaza (Bharuch), bringing "wheat, rice, clarified butter, sesame oil, cotton cloth… and honey from the reed called *sacchari*" (sugar cane). Some ships sailed only to these towns; others traded as they went along the coast (§14). ## Port by port **Avalites (§7), near Zeila.** "The first is called Avalites; to this place the voyage from Arabia to the far-side coast is the shortest." It was "a small market-town… which must be reached by boats and rafts." Imports were flint glass, sour-grape juice from Diospolis in Egypt, cloth "made for the Berbers", wheat, wine and a little tin. Exports were "spices, a little ivory, tortoise-shell, and a very little myrrh, but better than the rest." The text adds that the Berbers sometimes crossed the strait on rafts themselves to sell at Ocelis and Muza in Arabia, and calls the people of this place "very unruly." Schoff identifies Avalites with Zeila and notes the village of Abalit on the north shore of the bay ([Schoff 1912, notes p. 74](https://archive.org/details/cu31924030139236)). **Malao (§8), Berbera.** About 800 stadia (roughly 145 km) further on, with an anchorage "sheltered by a spit running out from the east." "Here the natives are more peaceable." Imports were tunics, cloaks from Arsinoe, drinking-cups, a little soft copper, iron, and some gold and silver coin. Exports were "myrrh, a little frankincense… the harder cinnamon, *duaca*, Indian copal and *macir*… and slaves, but rarely." Schoff identifies Malao with Berbera, whose sand spit still shelters the harbour ([Schoff 1912, notes p. 80](https://archive.org/details/cu31924030139236)). **Mundus (§9), [Heis](/en/history/heis-xiis-ancient-port-and-cairns/) (Xiis).** "Two days' sail, or three, beyond Malao", where "the ships lie at anchor more safely behind a projecting island close to the shore." It exported the same goods plus "the incense called *mocrotu*". The text says "the traders living here are more quarrelsome"; the newer translation quoted by the 2022 Heis excavators renders it "rather hard bargainers" ( [Fernández Fernández, González-Ruibal and de Torres 2022](https://books.openedition.org/momeditions/16511)). Schoff and later archaeologists match the "island close to the shore" with the rocky islet less than 200 m off Heis. **Mosylon (§10).** Two or three days further east, "on a beach, with a bad anchorage." It shipped "a great quantity of cinnamon (so that this market-town requires ships of larger size)", fragrant gums, spices, tortoiseshell, *mocrotu*, frankincense, ivory and myrrh. Imports included silver plate, a little iron and glass. Its site is debated: Schoff says most commentators put it at Ras Hantara, while Glaser preferred Ras Khamzir much further west ([Schoff 1912, notes p. 82](https://archive.org/details/cu31924030139236)). Chittick thought the Heis harbour fitted Mundus better and that the two names may have been confused by ancient writers. He noted that Pliny the Elder named the "Mossylites cape and harbour" as the furthest point east he knew ([Chittick 1979, p. 274](https://www.ancientportsantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents/PLACES/IndOc-Gulf/Somalia-Chittick1979.pdf)). **The frankincense groves (§11).** Beyond Mosylon came "the so-called Little Nile River", a spring, "Cape Elephant", and "a large laurel-grove called [Acannae](/en/regions/caluula/), where alone is produced the far-side frankincense, in great quantity and of the best grade." **The Market and [Cape of Spices](/en/history/ancient-frankincense-and-myrrh-trade/) (§12), Cape Guardafui.** "An abrupt promontory, at the very end of the Berber coast toward the east." Its anchorage was dangerous in north winds. When the sea turned "more turbid" before a storm, ships ran for shelter to a headland called [Tabae](/en/regions/qandala/). The market produced "cinnamon and its different varieties, *gizir*, *asypha*, *arebo*, *magla* and *moto*, and frankincense." Chittick linked this market to rock-cut walls of the Roman period near the village of Daamo, just west of the cape ([Chittick 1979, p. 275](https://www.ancientportsantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents/PLACES/IndOc-Gulf/Somalia-Chittick1979.pdf)). **Pano and Opone (§13), Ras Hafun.** After the village of Pano came "another market-town called Opone", where "the greatest quantity of cinnamon is produced", along with "slaves of the better sort, which are brought to Egypt in increasing numbers; and a great quantity of tortoise-shell, better than that found elsewhere." Opone is identified with Ras Hafun, about 150 km south of Guardafui. See [Opone and Ras Hafun](/en/history/ancient-port-of-opone-ras-hafun/). **[Azania](/en/history/greek-and-roman-writers-on-the-somali-coast/) (§15).** South of Opone the Periplus describes the "small and great bluffs of Azania", then the "Courses of Azania", the first called Sarapion and the next Nicon, a coast "destitute of harbours" that runs on towards Rhapta in today's [Tanzania](/en/diaspora/tanzania/). ## What the goods were - **Myrrh and frankincense** are tree resins. They were burned in temples across Egypt, Arabia and the Roman world. Chittick calls aromatic gums "the chief commodity sought by merchants coming to the Horn of Africa" ([Chittick 1979, p. 273](https://www.ancientportsantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents/PLACES/IndOc-Gulf/Somalia-Chittick1979.pdf)). - **"Cinnamon" (*kasia*)** in the Periplus was a range of bark spices, graded under local names. Schoff argued that much of it was re-exported from India and Southeast Asia through Somali ports, while some may have been local ([Schoff 1912, notes pp. 82–87](https://archive.org/details/cu31924030139236)). - **Mocrotu** was, in Schoff's reading, a high grade of frankincense. He cites the Arabic *mghairot* and a Somali word recorded as *mokhr* ([Schoff 1912, notes p. 82](https://archive.org/details/cu31924030139236)). - **Tortoiseshell, ivory and slaves** were also exported. The Periplus records Egyptian demand for enslaved people from Opone as rising. ## What archaeology later found - **Heis (Xiis), [Sanaag](/en/regions/sanaag/).** In the 1880s the French explorer [Georges Révoil](/en/history/revoil-ancient-sites-north-east-1880/) found Roman glass and pottery in cairns here. Chittick found Roman glass of about the 4th century AD in 1976. Excavations in 2018 and 2019 mapped a cemetery of over 300 cairns stretching 1,800 m along the coast. Imported goods were found at 80 of them: Parthian glazed ware, Roman glass and amphorae, and South Arabian jars of the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. One intact grave held a young person buried with a large Roman glass bottle of the 3rd century AD, iron anklets and a necklace of glass and bronze beads ([Fernández Fernández, González-Ruibal and de Torres, *Networked spaces*, MOM Éditions, 2022](https://books.openedition.org/momeditions/16511)). - **Ras Hafun, [Bari](/en/regions/bari/).** Two port sites, dated from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD (see [Opone and Ras Hafun](/en/history/ancient-port-of-opone-ras-hafun/)). - **No stone houses at Heis.** Chittick found no permanent dwellings at Heis. He suggested that trade was run by herders who set up portable houses, like the Somali *aqal*, during the trading season ([Chittick 1979, p. 274](https://www.ancientportsantiques.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents/PLACES/IndOc-Gulf/Somalia-Chittick1979.pdf)). - **Sewn boats.** Chittick linked the survival on this coast of the *beden*, a boat sewn together with no metal fastenings, to the rough, harbourless shore, since sewn hulls survive landing through surf (same source). ## Related pages - [Before 1300: the ancient Somali lands](/en/history/ancient-somali-lands-before-1300/) - [Heritage sites in Somalia](/en/society/heritage-sites/) - [Mogadishu, Zeila, Berbera and Barawa, 1331–1586](/en/history/somali-coast-towns-1331-1586/) --- I want to help with this: email hello@calankii.com. Fix this page: email hello@calankii.com with the page link and your source.