Ocelis
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Ocelis belonged to the South Arabian kingdom of Saba-Himyar and is known as a stop on the maritime route from Egypt to India in the 1st centuries CE. In the 1st century, Periplus Maris Erythraei describes it as "not so much a port of trade as harbour, watering station, and the first place to put in for those sailing on".[6] Pliny the Elder reports their destination and describes Ocelis as the first stop on the sea journey from Egypt to India.[7]
Ocelis was visited by traders coming over from the African side on rafts with aromatics, myrrh, ivory and tortoise shell, this being the only report of African navigation in this work.[6]
The site of Ocelis is tentatively identified as at Khor Ghurayrah (Shaykh Sa'id) in Yemen.[8][9] During the 18th century, a port identified as Ocelis[10] was known as Ziden. It was described as a settlement of 500 houses with over a hundred ships in the anchorage.[11]
References
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- ↑ Template:Cite Ptolemy
- ↑ Hudson, Geog. Min. tom. i. p. 14; Template:Cite Ptolemy
- ↑ Template:Cite Strabo
- ↑ Template:Cite Pliny
- ↑ Template:Cite Ptolemy
- ↑ a b Casson, L. 1989. The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- ↑ Template:Cite Pliny
- ↑ Template:Cite Barrington
- ↑ Template:Cite DARE
- ↑ Alexander Macbean, "Acila", A Dictionary of Ancient Geography, London: G. Robinson and T. Cadell, 1773 Template:Catalog lookup link.
- ↑ "An extract of a journey through part of Arabia Felix", p. 167 in A Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages, London: John Ray, 1705 Template:Catalog lookup link.
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- Nobbe, C. F. A., ed. 1843–45. Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia. 3 vols. Lipsiae (Leipzig): Carolus Tauchnitus
- Rackham, H. 1997–2001. Natural history: in ten volumes / Pliny ; with an English translation by H. Rackham, W. H. S. Jones, D. E. Eichholz. 10 vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Original edition, 1938–1963.