Alula

History

Alula is one of the oldest towns in Somalia and among the madīnah (historical settlements) of Puntland's Bari region. It first appears in historical records in the 1st century AD, as mentioned by the anonymous author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. In the Periplus, Calula/Caluula is referred to as Acannae (its Latinized form) while in the 2nd-century Geographia of Ptolemy it is designated as Akkania or Accana. It was part of the ancient Somali coastal trading ports that dominated northeastern Somalia (Puntland) during Classical and Late antiquity. A large laurel grove bearing the same name and situated in its vicinity yielded the finest and greatest quantity of frankincense known in Antiquity. This aromatic resin was called the far-side frankincense or the far-side incense (as it is produced in the remotest part of northern Somalia near Cape Guardafui), and in the Periplus as ‘peratic’ or ‘beyond the strait’ (that is, from the region beyond the strait of Bab el-Mandeb, here referring to northeastern Somalia). Through the emporium of Accana, incense resin and fragrant gums was exported to other market towns along the northern Somali coast such as Malao, Mosylon, Opone, Isis, Aromatica, and Avalites, which re-exported it after its arrival and further carried it across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea ( using beden ships) to Roman Egypt, Troglodica ( northern red sea region) and neighboring Arabia. Through this trade route, northeastern and northwestern Somalia were jointly connected by this incense trade route, going through inland and seashore caravan routes before crossing to southwestern Arabia (Yemen) and then to the Near East and India. This commerce was still active as late as the 6th century, as noted by Cosmas Indicopleustes in his Christian Topography.…

Most recent

• M 4.2 — 2019-07-14
  87 km N of Caluula, Somalia
• M 4.4 — 2016-11-13
  83 km N of Bereeda, Somalia
• M 4.5 — 2015-07-23
  94 km N of Caluula, Somalia
• M 4.2 — 2005-07-28
  92 km N of Caluula, Somalia