3000 BC to 700

Rock art and incense ports

Herders painted cattle on the rock shelters of Laas Geel, near Hargeisa, at least five thousand years ago. Ancient Egyptians sailed to a land of incense they called Punt, which many scholars place on the Horn of Africa. In the first century AD a Greek guide to the Red Sea trade describes ports on this coast, such as Malao and Opone, near Cape Hafun, exporting myrrh, frankincense and cinnamon.