Malao (ancient)

Ancient Malao
Location	Somalia
City-state existed:	1st century AD

Malao was an ancient city state located on the Somali peninsula that was an important trading member involved in the Red Sea-Indian Ocean commerce in the early centuries AD, and maintained an important monetary market for merchants trading in the currencies of the Roman Empire.^[1]

History and trade

The ancient port city of Malao, positioned in the historic Somali city of Berbera is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea:

"After Avalites there is another market-town, better than this, called Malao, distant a sail of about eight hundred stadia. The anchorage is an open roadstead, sheltered by a spit running out from the east. Here the natives are more peaceable. There are imported into this place the things already mentioned, and many tunics, cloaks from Arsinoe, dressed and dyed; drinking-cups, sheets of soft copper in small quantity, iron, and gold and silver coin, not much. There are exported from these places myrrh, a little frankincense, (that known as far-side), the harder cinnamon, duaca, Indian copal and macir, which are imported into Arabia; and slaves, but rarely."

—Chap.8.

See also

• Sarapion
• Opone
• Mosylon
• Essina
• Somali maritime history
• Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
• History of Somalia

References

1. ^ The archaeology of seafaring in ancient South Asia By Himanshu Prabha Ray pg 209