Red Sea port of Mersa/Wadi Gawasis (Punt expeditions)
Puerto del mar Rojo de Mersa/Wadi Gawasis (expediciones a Punt)
- Date
- c. 1900 BCE (Reino Medio) · confidence medium
- Place
- Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Safaga, Red Sea, Egypt
- Credited to
- Middle Kingdom Egypt (Twelfth Dynasty kings)
- Field
- Movement
What was discovered
A seagoing port excavated since 2001 with storage caves holding dismantled ship hulls, stone anchors, ropes and cargo boxes from Punt. It shows that ships were built on the Nile and carried across the desert to be assembled on the Red Sea.
The location of Punt (Eritrea and Sudan, or Yemen and Somalia) is still debated; inscriptions at the port confirm the expeditions but not the exact area.
What it led to
- Egyptian sea trade in incense, myrrh and gold with Punt
- the Red Sea route later used by Hatshepsut
- state organisation of long-distance naval expeditions