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Rhapta
Rhapta ( grc, Ῥάπτα and Ῥαπτά) was an emporion said to be on the coast of Southeast Africa, first described in the 1st century CE. Its location has not been firmly identified, although there are a number of plausible candidate sites. The ancient ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' described Rhapta as "the last emporion of Azania", two days' travel south of the Menouthias islands (Chapter 16). The ''Periplus'' also states that the city and port were ruled by South Arabian vassals of the Himyarite kingdom, particularly a certain “ Mapharitic chieftain.” According to Claudius Ptolemy, Diogenes, a merchant in the Indian trade, was blown off course from his usual route from India, and after travelling 25 days south along the coast of Africa arrived at Rhapta, located where the river of the same name enters the Indian Ocean opposite the island of Menouthias. Diogenes further describes this river as having its source near the Mountains of the Moon, near the swamp whence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Periplus Of The Erythraean Sea
The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' ( grc, Περίπλους τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης, ', modern Greek '), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice Troglodytica along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along Horn of Africa, the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, including the modern-day Sindh region of Pakistan and southwestern regions of India. The text has been ascribed to different dates between the first and third centuries, but a mid-first-century date is now the most commonly accepted. While the author is unknown, it is clearly a first-hand description by someone familiar with the area and is nearly unique in providing accurate insights into what the ancient Hellenic world knew about the lands around the Indian Ocean. Name A periplus ( grc-gre, περίπλους, ''períplous'', ."a sailing-around ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menouthias
Menouthias ( grc, Μενουθιάς) is an ancient trading town most commonly identified with either Pemba Island, Mafia Island or Zanzibar in Tanzania or East Africa, that existed from at least 50 B.C. Along with Rhapta and Azania, the settlement is mentioned in early Greek writings, such as the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'', which describes Rhapta as "the last marketplace of Azania", two days' travel south of the Menouthias islands.Annabel Skinner, ''Tanzania & Zanzibar'' (2005), page 394, - See also * Azania * Rhapta Rhapta ( grc, Ῥάπτα and Ῥαπτά) was an emporion said to be on the coast of Southeast Africa, first described in the 1st century CE. Its location has not been firmly identified, although there are a number of plausible candidate sites. ... References History of Kenya Precolonial Tanzania Ancient Greek geography of East Africa Ancient Roman geography {{Africa-hist-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Azania
Azania ( grc, Ἀζανία) is a name that has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropical Africa. In the Roman period and perhaps earlier, the toponym referred to a portion of the Southeast Africa coast extending from northern Kenya to the border between Mozambique and South Africa. Azania was mostly inhabited by Southern Cushitic peoples, whose groups would rule the area until the great Bantu Migration. Ancient Azania Azania was a region in ancient Arcadia, which was according to Pausanias named after the mythical king Azan. According to Herodotus, the region contained the ancient town of Paus. The use of this name coincides with a reference in which Pliny the Elder mentions an "Azanian Sea" (N.H. 6.34) that began around the emporium of Adulis and stretched around the south coast of Africa. It may well be that the Greek usage resonated with a term already in use around the Horn of Africa especially in the light of the fact that the term with a different meaning to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mountains Of The Moon (Africa)
250px, ''Jibhel Kumri'' or Mountains of the Moon as conceived in 1819 Mountains of the Moon (Latin: ''Montes Lunae''; ar, جبل القمر, ' or ''Jibbel el Kumri'') is an ancient term referring to a legendary mountain or mountain range in east Africa at the source of the Nile River. Various identifications have been made in modern times, the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo being the most celebrated. Ancient testimony People of the ancient world were long curious about the source of the Nile, especially Ancient Greek geographers. A number of expeditions up the Nile failed to find the source. Eventually, a merchant named Diogenes reported that he had traveled inland from Rhapta in East Africa for twenty-five days and had found the source of the Nile. He reported that it flowed from a group of massive mountains into a series of large lakes. He reported the natives called this range the Mountains of the Moon because of their snowcapped whiten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Himyarite Kingdom
The Himyarite Kingdom ( ar, مملكة حِمْيَر, Mamlakat Ḥimyar, he, ממלכת חִמְיָר), or Himyar ( ar, حِمْيَر, ''Ḥimyar'', / 𐩹𐩧𐩺𐩵𐩬) ( fl. 110 BCE–520s CE), historically referred to as the Homerite Kingdom by the Greeks and the Romans (its subjects being called Homeritae), was a polity in the southern highlands of Yemen, as well as the name of the region which it claimed. Until 110 BCE, it was integrated into the Qatabanian kingdom, afterwards being recognized as an independent kingdom. According to classical sources, their capital was the ancient city of Zafar, relatively near the modern-day city of Sana'a. Himyarite power eventually shifted to Sana'a as the population increased in the fifth century. After the establishment of their kingdom, it was ruled by kings from dhū-Raydān tribe. The kingdom was named Raydān.Jérémie Schiettecatte. Himyar. Roger S. Bagnall; Kai Brodersen; Craige B. Champion; Andrew Erskine; Sabine R. Hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rufiji River
The Rufiji River lies entirely within Tanzania. It is also the largest and longest river in the country. The river is formed by the confluence of the Kilombero and Luwegu rivers. It is approximately long, with its source in southwestern Tanzania and its mouth on the Indian Ocean opposite Mafia Island across the Mafia Channel, in Pwani Region. Its principal tributary is the Great Ruaha River. It is navigable for approximately . The Rufiji river is approximately south of Dar es Salaam. The river's delta contains the largest mangrove forest in eastern Africa. History A branch of ancient sea routes led down the East African coast called "Azania" by the Greeks and Romans in the 1st century CE as described in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (and, very probably, zh, 澤散, Zesan in the 3rd century by the Chinese), at least as far as the port known to the Romans as Rhapta, which was probably located in the delta of the Rufiji River in modern Tanzania. During the First World ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbaria (region)
Barbaria was the name used by the ancient Greeks for littoral northeast Africa. The corresponding Arabic term, ''bilad al-Barbar'' (land of the Barbar), was used in the Middle Ages.Michael Peppard, "A Letter Concerning Boats in Berenike and Trade on the Red Sea", ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' 171 (2009), pp. 193–198. The name of Barbaria is preserved today in the name of the Somali city of Berbera, the city known to the Greeks as Malao.David M. Goldenberg, "Geographia Rabbinica: The Toponym Barbaria", ''Journal of Jewish Studies'' 50, 1 (1999), pp. 67–69. Greek sources According to the ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'', a 1st-century travelogue written by a Greek merchant based in Alexandria, Barbaria extended from the border of Egypt just south of Berenice Troglodytica to just north of Ptolemais Theron. From there to the Bab-el-Mandeb was the kingdom ruled by Zoskales (possibly Aksum), after which the "rest of Barbaria" extended to Opone. This second Barb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blown Off Course
To be blown off course in the sailing ship era meant be to diverted by unexpected winds, getting lost possibly to shipwreck or to a new destination. In the ancient world, this was especially a great danger before the maturation of the Maritime Silk Road in the Early Middle Ages, finding expression in the writing of Cosmas Indicopleustes. Even in later eras, the ship could attempt to limit its divergence by tacking or heaving to, but it was often difficult to keep track by mere celestial navigation before the invention of the marine chronometer in the late 18th century. A number of "discoveries" during the Age of Discovery were accidentally found in this way, and the serendipity of being blown off course is also a trope in fiction. Accidental discovery may have played a larger role than previously acknowledged in early European colonialism in contrast to the idea of a centrally-planned program as by Prince Henry the Navigator, but it is also thought that the Austronesian expa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emporium (antiquity)
An emporium refers to a trading post, factory, or market of Classical antiquity, derived from the grc, ἐμπόριον, (empórion), which becomes la, emporium. The plural is ''emporia'' in both languages, although in Greek the plural undergoes a semantic shift to mean "merchandise". ''Emporium'' is a term that has also been used to describe the centres of heightened trade during the Early Middle Ages. ''Emporia'' varied greatly in their level of activity. Some seem to have functioned much like the permanent European trading colonies in China, India and Japan in the early modern period or those of the mediaeval Italian maritime republics in the Levant. Others were probably annual events for a few days or weeks like the medieval Champagne fairs or modern trade fairs. Examples Famous ''emporia'' include: Elim, where Hatshepsut kept her Red Sea fleet; Elat, where Thebes was supplied with mortuary materials, linen, bitumen, naphtha, frankincense, myrrh and carved stone am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sigi River
Zigi River also known as Sigi River (Swahili: Mto Sigi ), is a river in located in east Tanga Region in Tanzania. The river rises in the Amani Nature Reserve in the east Usambara Mountains in Muheza District, more precisely in Handei Mountains, at an altitude of 1130 meters and flows for 100 km in a long course and multiple changes of direction to its mouth 40 km north of the town of Tanga in the Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by t .... Its tributaries are the Kihuhui (from south) and the Musi (from North). Hydrometrie Average monthly flow of Zigi measured at the hydrological station in Lanconi Estate, approximately 10 km above the Mabayani Dam in m³ / s (1957 - 1990). The Zigi flows stimulate time-dependent, like most rivers in the region ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pangani
Pangani Town is a historic Swahili settlement located on the south eastern shore of Tanga Region, Tanzania. The town lies south of the city of Tanga, at the mouth of the Pangani River. It is the headquarters of the Pangani District. Administrately the town Pangani is situated within two wards, Pangani Mashariki and Pangani Magharibi. The town is currently the largest settlement in Pangani district and is a major tourist attraction in Tanga region and is a Tanzanian National Histotic Site. History Archaeologists have found the remains of small 15th century settlements on the bluffs just north of Pangani, but the modern town came to prominence in the 19th century, when, under nominal Zanzibari rule, it was a major terminus of caravan routes to the deep interior. From the 1860s onward townspeople established large plantations of sugar and coconut in Mauya, along the banks of the river just west of town. The plantations were worked by slave labor, and Pangani also became an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
