chiefdom · Horn and East Africa

Land of Punt

2500 BCE – 1100 BCE (approx.)

A fabled land of incense, ebony and gold on the southern Red Sea, reached by Egyptian trading fleets for over a thousand years.

Origins

Punt is known almost entirely from Egyptian sources. The earliest recorded expedition went out under Sahure of the 5th Dynasty, c. 2450 BCE, and later voyages sailed from Red Sea harbours such as Mersa Gawasis. Its exact location is still debated, with proposals ranging from eastern Sudan and Eritrea to the Somali coast, while recent isotope studies of baboon mummies point to the Eritrea and Ethiopia region.

Rule and society

Egyptians prized Punt for myrrh and frankincense, ebony, ivory, gold, leopard skins and live baboons. The best-known record, the reliefs of Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari (c. 1470 BCE), show houses on stilts, domed huts, a ruler called Parahu and his queen Ati, and myrrh trees being loaded in baskets for replanting in Egypt. Nothing is known of its own language or institutions.

Decline and legacy

References fade after the New Kingdom, with the last expeditions recorded under Ramesses III in the 12th century BCE. Punt survived in Egyptian memory as a semi-mythical 'God's Land', and some historians see it as a forerunner of the trade networks later dominated by D'mt and the Kingdom of Aksum.

Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Land of Punt. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/land-of-punt
MLA
“Land of Punt.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/land-of-punt. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Land of Punt.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/land-of-punt.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Land of Punt’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/land-of-punt (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻