Port of Isis

Port of Isis
Location of Bulhar in Somaliland
Location of Bulhar in Somaliland
Location within Somaliland
10°23′N 44°25′E / 10.383°N 44.417°E / 10.383; 44.417
TypeSeaport and Emporium
Periods1st century AD
CulturesAncient Somali, Barbaria, Ancient Somali city-states
LocationBulhar, Berbera District, Sahil Region, Somaliland

The Port of Isis (Latin: Isidis Portus) was an ancient seaport and emporium in northern Somalia along the Gulf of Aden. Mentioned in Roman records as early as the 1st century AD, it is primarily known from Pliny in his Natural History. According to Pliny, it was a center of myrrh commerce, from which it exported to the Troglodytes of the Red sea. Its name comes from the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis, though the reason for the connection between Isis and the Port is unknown. It has been identified with the modern coastal town of Bulhar, situated between Berbera and Zeila in the Sahil region of Somaliland.

Etymology

The name "Port of Isis" (Latin: Isidis Portus) derived from the portus and of the Isis. Isis is a Greco-Roman form of Iset, a major ancient Egyptian deity. The connection of the two is unknown. Even Strabo, in his Geographica, names a river in the modern Cape Gaurdafui in Northeastern Somalia as Isis,[1] which at its bank produced myrrh and frankincense.[2]

History

Pliny

Pliny, in his Natural history, mentioned the Port of Isis in the following passage:

“Next there is a bay in the coast of Ethiopia that has not been explored, which is surprising, in view of the fact that traders ransack more remote districts; and a cape on which is a spring named Cucios, resorted to by seafarers; and further on, Port of Isis, ten days' row distant from Aduliton, and a centre to which the Trogodytae's myrrh is brought. There are two islands off the harbour called the False Pylae, and two inside it called the Pylae, on one of which are some stone monuments with inscriptions in an unknown alphabet.[3]

Samuel Sharpe suggests that the old inscriptions at the Port of Isis islands were probably hieroglyphic.[4] No later Greco-Roman accounts, such as the Periplus or Ptolemy in his Geography, mention the Port of Isis. The Port of Isis might have declined due to the rise of new trading centers and ports along northern Somalia's coast, which may have taken its prominence in the incense trade route.

Identification with Bulhar

Bulhar is considered the probable location of the ancient Port of Isis[5]. It might have been a thriving marketplace due to its roadstead;[6] however, the modern Bulhar only emerged as a settlement during the 19th century.

See also

  • Portus, a large artificial harbour complex of Ancient Rome located at the mouth of the Tiber on the Tyrrhenian Sea

References

  1. ^ Said M-Shidad Hussein. "The Ancient Kingdom of Punt and its Factor in Egyptian History, Part IV" (PDF). WardheerNews. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2026-03-24.
  2. ^ Strabo. "Geography, Book XVI". The Perseus Digital Library. Retrieved 2026-03-24. After these, one comes to the country that bears frankincense; and here is a promontory and a temple that has a grove of poplars. In the interior lie the river-land of Isis, as it is called, and another river-land called Neilus, both of which produce both myrrh and frankincense along their banks.
  3. ^ "Pliny, Natural History, Book 6". Attalus.org. section corresponding to p. 172. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  4. ^ Sharpe, Samuel (1836). The Early History of Egypt, from the Old Testament, Herodotus, Manetho, and the Hieroglyphical Inscriptions. E. Moxon. pp. 97–98. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
  5. ^ Anthropos: Im Auftrage der Oesterreichischen Leo-Gesellschaft mit Unterstützung der Deutschen Görres-Gesellschaft. Vol. 35–36. Anthropos-Institut. 1941. p. 212.
  6. ^ "Bulhar". Anthropos. 35–36. Zaunrith'sche Buch-, Kunst- und Steindruckerei: 217. 1941.

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