# Where was "Punt"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-was-punt/488344>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 5, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-was-punt/488344 "2009-03-05T01:22:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-was-punt/488344/1 "2009-03-05T01:22:55Z")

</div>

The ancient Egyptians recorded a voyage by one of their explorers, to a land called “Punt”. The egyptians were not great travelers (they rarely ventured beyond the western Mediterranean Sea). But why the confusion about “Punt”-was it west africa, Ethiopia, or somwhere further south?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-was-punt/488344/2 "2009-03-05T01:28:22Z")

</div>

East Africa, near modern Somalia.

Climate was different, then, & the land was wealthy.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-was-punt/488344/3 "2009-03-05T02:35:33Z")

</div>

Note that there’s a province called [Puntland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puntland) in modern-day Somalia, although Wikipedia seems to imply that the region’s name derives from the Egyptian writings rather than the other way around.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-was-punt/488344/4 "2009-03-05T14:28:57Z")

</div>

Lot’s of supposition, no firm data. Anywhere from the Jordan valley (!) to Arabia to halfway down the African coast. Pick your favorite expert and ignore the rest.