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28-678: G.W.B. Huntingford has identified with the Dahlak archipelago a group of islands near Adulis called "Alalaiou" in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea which were a source of tortoise shell. According to Edward Ullendorff , the Dahlak islanders were amongst the first people in the Horn of Africa to embrace Islam , and a number of tombstones in Kufic script attest to this early connection. In

56-554: A tee-tee-tee followed by a prolonged tee-hoo while nosediving. The typical call is a rolling zreee or too . The nest is a cup made up of small sticks and placed on a low bush or on the ground, sometimes at the base of a bush. The nest is prominent and often placed on an isolated bush. Two or three eggs are laid and both sexes take turns in incubation. They feed on insects and other invertebrates, small lizards and seeds. Young birds are capable of swift running even before they can fly. The female may perform distraction displays when

84-430: A French mission to Eritrea under Vignaud and Petit performed an initial survey in 1840, and prepared a map which marked the location of three structures they believed were temples. In 1868, workers attached to Napier's campaign against Tewodros II visited Adulis and exposed several buildings, including the foundations of a Byzantine -like church. The first scientific excavations at Adulis were undertaken in 1906, under

112-638: A lot of pottery: even wine amphorae imported from the area of modern Aqaba were found here during the decades of existence of the colony of Italian Eritrea . These types now called Ayla-Axum Amphoras have since been found at other sites in Eritrea including on Black Assarca Island . Over 50 years passed until the next series of excavations, when in 1961 and 1962 the Ethiopian Institute of Archeology sponsored an expedition led by Francis Anfray. This excavation not only recovered materials showing

140-490: A mystery. Muslim writers occasionally mention both Adulis and the nearby Dahlak Archipelago as places of exile. The evidence suggests that Axum maintained its access to the Red Sea, yet experienced a clear decline in its fortunes from the seventh century onwards. In any case, the sea power of Axum waned and security for the Red Sea fell on other shoulders. Adulis was one of the first Axumite sites to undergo excavation, when

168-445: A strong affinities with the late Axumite kingdom, but a destruction layer . This in turn prompted Kobishchanov to later argue that Adulis had been destroyed by an Arab raid in the mid-7th century, a view that has since been partially rejected. A pair of fragments of glass vessels were found in the lowest layers at Adulis, which are similar to specimens from the 18th Dynasty of Egypt . One very specialised imported vessel discovered at

196-527: A variety of invertebrates. The archipelago has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports significant populations of spotted sandgrouse , white-eyed gulls , lesser crested terns , lesser kestrels , sooty falcons , greater hoopoe-larks , blackstarts and cinereous buntings . [REDACTED] Media related to Dahlak Archipelago at Wikimedia Commons Adulis Adulis ( Sabaean : ሰበኣ ‎𐩱 𐩵 𐩡 𐩪, Ge'ez : ኣዱሊስ , Ancient Greek : Ἄδουλις )

224-409: Is large, long-legged and slender-bodied with a distinctive down-curved bill. The face has dark markings including a line through the eye and whisker like-lines from the base of bill running under the eye. The breast is spotted and the underside is buffy white while the upper-parts are sandy grey. The female is slightly smaller with less prominent markings and the bill is slightly shorter. The hind claw

252-534: Is short and straight. The curved upper beak has the nostril opening exposed. The tongue is bifid at the tip. Birds are seen singly or in pairs as they forage by running or walking in spurts, probing and digging the ground. They have been recorded to feed on the fruiting bodies of certain fungi. The breeding season is mainly after the first rains, in India most records are from March to July. Late records in August when

280-756: The Abyssinian-Adal war , where the sultanate of Adal waged a temporarily successful jihad with the help of cannons and guns from the Ottomans against the Ethiopian Empire . Sultan Ahmad joined the Adal Empire and was rewarded with the port town of Arkiko , which before the war had belonged to Medri Bahri. However, in 1541, one year after the death of sultan Ahmad, the Portuguese returned and destroyed Dahlak yet again. Sixteen years later,

308-633: The Derg , the Dahlak Archipelago was the location of a Soviet Navy base. In 1990, Ethiopia lost control of the Dahlak Archipelago and the northern Eritrean coast to the Eritrean independence movement ( EPLF ) and by 1991 Ethiopia had lost control of all of Eritrea. Following the international recognition of Eritrean independence in 1993, the Dahlak Archipelago became a part of Eritrea. Consisting of two larger and 124 smaller islands, only three of

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336-569: The ancient Egyptians as the Land of Punt , perhaps coinciding with the locality of Wddt , recorded in the geographical list of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt . Pliny the Elder is the earliest European writer to mention Adulis (N.H. 6.34). He misunderstood the name of the place, thinking the toponym meant that it had been founded by escaped Egyptian slaves. Pliny further stated that it

364-502: The archipelago have been famous since Roman times, and still produce a substantial number of pearls . Tourism is increasing. The islands can be reached by boat from Massawa and are popular with scuba divers and snorkellers. The islands and surrounding seas, with their coral reefs and shoals, are rich in marine life, including seabirds and waders . Some islands are fringed with mangroves and others with salt brush scrub. Dolphins, dugongs, sharks, and turtles can be seen as well as

392-490: The bifasciated lark and sometimes as the large desert lark . Formerly, the greater hoopoe-lark was classified as belonging to the genera Upupa and Certhilauda until moved to Alaemon . The name Alaemon comes from the Greek alēmōn, meaning "wanderer" (from alaomai, meaning "to wander"). The genus was established by Alexander Keyserling and Johann Heinrich Blasius in 1840. Four subspecies are recognized: This lark

420-662: The 6th century: the first, probably the copy of another inscription at Alexandria, records how Ptolemy Euergetes (247–222 BC) used war elephants captured in the region to gain victories in his wars abroad; the second, known as the Monumentum Adulitanum , was inscribed in the 27th year of a king of Axum, perhaps named Sembrouthes, other scholars theorize him to be the axumite king GDRT , boasting of his victories in Arabia and northern Ethiopia. A fourth century work traditionally (but probably incorrectly) ascribed to

448-642: The 7th century, the Sultanate of Dahlak emerged in the archipelago. However, it was subsequently conquered by Yemen , then by the Ethiopian Empire . In 1517 the Ottoman Turks conquered the islands and placed them under the rule of the Pasha at Suakin as part of the province of Habesh . By 1526 the Dahalik sultan, Ahmad, had been degraded to a tributary. There was a short revival of the sultanate during

476-535: The earlier period prior to the emergence of Aksum. Greater hoopoe-lark See text The greater hoopoe-lark ( Alaemon alaudipes ) is a passerine bird which is a breeding resident of arid, desert and semi-desert regions from the Cape Verde Islands across much of northern Africa, through the Arabian Peninsula , Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. It was formerly known as

504-485: The islands are permanently inhabited, with Dahlak Kebir being the largest and most populated. Other islands of the archipelago are Dhuladhiya, Dissei, Dohul (Dehil), Erwa, Harat, Harmil , Isra-Tu, Nahaleg, Nakura , Nora (Norah) and Shumma. Besides Dahlak Kebir, only Nora and Dohul are permanently inhabited. Residents of the archipelago speak Dahlik and maintain a traditional way of life, including fishing, shepherding and raising camels . The local pearl fisheries of

532-753: The islands were occupied by the Ottoman Empire again, who made them part of the Habesh Eyalet . The Italian colony of Eritrea , formed in 1890, included the archipelago. However, during this time the islands were home to little except the Nocra prison camp operated by the Italian colonial forces. After Ethiopia allied itself with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, following the rise of

560-525: The middle of the Axumite kingdom and subsumes it as an integral part of this very kingdom. As a result, Adulis has been studied as part and parcel of the Axumite kingdom by most, if not all, scholars of the region. However, recent historical/archaeological sources challenge the Abyssinian paradigm in the sense that Adulis was the center of a kingdom that was not a constituent part of the Axumite kingdom, on

588-550: The rains were delayed have been noted in India. The courtship display of the male consists of rising with fluttering wing-strokes and then diving down with closed wings to a perch. The slow flappy start to the song flight recall a hoopoe for which this species is named. The striking wing pattern of black wing feathers with a white base and trailing edge; and a white tail with black outer feathers are displayed in flight. The male also sings with rising and falling notes consisting of trilled whistles and clicks that have been transcribed as

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616-647: The scholar Yuri Kobishchanov detailed a number of raids Aksumites made on the Arabian coast (the latest being in 702, when the port of Jeddah was occupied), and argued that Adulis was later captured by the Muslims , which brought to an end Axum's naval ability and contributed to the Aksumite Kingdom's isolation from the Byzantine Empire and other traditional allies, the last years of Adulis are

644-853: The site was a Menas flask . It was stamped with a design showing the Egyptian St. Menas between two kneeling camels. Such vessels are supposed to have held water from a spring near the saint's tomb in Egypt (Paribeni 1907: 538, fig. 54), and this particular one may have been brought to Adulis by a pilgrim. Since Eritrean Independence, the National Museum of Eritrea has petitioned the Government of Ethiopia to return artifacts of these excavations. To date they have been denied. Previous colonial researches were underpinned by an old Ethiopian narrative. Most of these chronicles puts Adulis smack-dab at

672-464: The supervision of Richard Sundström. Sundström worked in the northern sector of the site, exposing a large structure, which he dubbed the "palace of Adulis", as well as recovering some examples of Axumite coinage. The Italian Roberto Paribeni excavated in Adulis the following year, discovering many structures similar to what Sundström had found earlier, as well as a number of ordinary dwellings. He found

700-601: The writer Palladius of Galatia , relates the journey of an anonymous Egyptian lawyer ( scholasticus ) to India in order to investigate Brahmin philosophy. He was accompanied part of the way by one Moise or Moses, the Bishop of Adulis. Control of Adulis allowed Axum to be the major power on the Red Sea . This port was the principal staging area for Kaleb 's invasion of the Himyarite kingdom of Dhu Nuwas around 520. While

728-444: The young or nest are threatened. During the heat of the day, they may shelter in the burrows of Uromastyx lizards. The water loss through their skin varies with temperature and they are able to live in very arid conditions. Their breeding is dependent on the rains and in very dry years they may not breed. The wide distribution consists of several populations that have been designated as subspecies. These include boavistae of

756-549: Was an ancient city along the Red Sea in the Gulf of Zula , about 40 kilometers (25 mi) south of Massawa . Its ruins lie within the modern Eritrean city of Zula . It was the emporium considered part of the D’mt and the Kingdom of Aksum . It was close to Greece and the Byzantine Empire , with its luxury goods and trade routes. Its location can be included in the area known to

784-569: Was the 'principal mart for the Troglodytae and the people of Aethiopia '. Adulis is also mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea , a guide of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The latter guide describes the settlement as an emporium for the ivory , hides, slaves and other exports of the interior. Roman merchants used the port in the second and third century AD. Cosmas Indicopleustes records two inscriptions he found here in

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