Punt *

Published November 18, 2015

Punt is the name given to a land with which the ancient Egyptians traded. The leading theory is that it was located to the southeast of Egypt, roughly occupying what is now called ‘the Horn of Africa, although there is also a popular view that it was situated on the Arabian Peninsula. Others suggest that a combination of parts of both regions might be nearer the truth. An article from November 2016 elaborates on the claim for this identification^(e).

Along with the many luxury goods that Punt supplied to Egypt were baboons, so it was interesting to read in 2020 that “a new study tracing the geographic origins of Egyptian mummified baboons finds that they were sourced from an area that includes the modern-day countries of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Yemen, providing new insight into Punt’s location.”⁽ⁱ⁾. The investigation centred on the strontium levels found in the ancient remains.

A November 2023 an article by Miriam Fauzia returned to the possibility that the baboons offered clues to the location of Punt and once again focused on East Africa, specifically the Eritrean location of the legendary port city known to the Romans as Adulis⁽ⁿ⁾.

Thor Heyerdahl in The Tigris Expedition ^[1921] also identified the region around Djibouti as the land of Punt.

In 2013, a short book ^[¹⁵⁶⁷^] by Ahmed Ibrahim Awale, placed Punt in the same region, namely, in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland. A favourable and well-illustrated review^(f) of Awale’s book is worth a read. The worldhistory.org website has pointed out that the name of the Puntland State of Somalia may preserve a memory of the original mythical Punt^(h).

However, Immanuel Velikovsky wrote at length about Punt and its location in Palestine in Ages in Chaos ^[0039]. He maintains that Punt is consistently described as being to the east of Egypt, which would rule out Somalia. Added to this, he claimed that the Queen of Sheba and Queen Hatshepsut were one and the same person, a view endorsed by historical researcher Dr. Eva Danelius (1898-1995).

Others, such as Eulalio Eguia jr, identify the Queen of Sheba with Nefertiti^(l). Velikovsky’s comments are certainly worth a read. Emmet Sweeney has adopted both Velikovsky’s location for Punt and his identification of the Queen of Sheba^(j). Damien Mackey offers new evidence to support Velikovsky’s claims^(m).

By way of contrast, David Lorton has offered a series of criticisms of Velikovsky’s Punt/Sheba ideas^(k).

Frank Joseph in his Atlantis Encyclopedia^[⁰¹⁰⁴^.37] claims that “the Lands of Punt (are) often associated with the islands of Atlantis.” Joseph expands on this in an Atlantis Rising article^(a) where he refers to an ancient Egyptian story of “The Shipwrecked Sailor” in which the ‘Serpent King’ is identified as master of the island of Punt, which again Joseph claims to be Atlantis.

More recently, a small number of commentators have identified Punt/Atlantis with Indonesia^(b)(c). Dhani Irwanto, who is a leading advocate of an Indonesian Atlantis^[¹⁰⁹³^] published in November 2015 an extensive article online^(d) in which he specifically names the Indonesian island of Sumatera (Sumatra) as the land of Punt. He has now expanded this into a book, Land of Punt: In Search of the Divine Land of the Egyptians ^[^1628]. Irwanto goes further and also identifies the mysterious land of Ophir in the Bible as Punt.

Xavier Séguin proposed that Punt along with Atlantis, Mu and Hyperborea were in fact satellites^(g)!!!

^(a) See: Archive 2790

^(b) https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/atlantida_mu/esp_atlantida_3a.htm

^(c)http://www.lost-civilizations.net/true-history-atlantis-2.html

^(d) https://atlantisjavasea.com/2015/11/14/land-of-punt-is-sumatera/

^(e) https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/somalia-ancient-lost-kingdom-punt-finally-found-006893?nopaging=1

^(f) The Mystery of the Land of Punt Unravelled – book review | Land of Punt (archive.org)

^(g) https://eden-saga.com/en/mythology-deluge-cataclysm-plato-flood-atlantis-location-piri-reis-last-days-in-atlantis.html

^(h) https://www.worldhistory.org/punt/?visitCount=48&lastVisitDate=2021-4-9&pageViewCount=64

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201215082048.htm

^(j) https://www.hope-of-israel.org/expeditionpunt.html

^(k) Hatshepsut, the Queen of Sheba, and Immanuel Velikovsky (archive.org) (new link)