Interesting Facts
Did You Know? that...
In antiquity, Somalia was an important centre for commerce. Somali sailers and merchants traded in frankincense, myrrh and spices, which were highly valued by the Ancient Egyptians, Phonenicians, Mycenaeans and Babylonians with whom the Somali people had commercial and other relations. - According to most Scholars, Somalia is where the ancient Kindom of Punt. The ancient Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Pharaonic Egypt. The pyramidal structures, temples and ancient houses of dressed stone littered around Somalia are said to date from this period. In the classical era, Somalia also had several ancient city-states such as Opone, Mosyllon and Malao that competed with the Sabaeans, Parthians and Axumites for the wealthy Indo-Greco-Roman trade. Through archaeological remains the ancient port city of Opone has been identified with the modern town of Hafun in Somalia. While Malao is identified with modern Berbera in Somalia. For more details see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia
Somalis knew that mosquito was the source of the malaria long before it was scientifically proven in the west. - . This is why Somalis have only one word for both mosquitoes and malaria – kaneeco. In the book ‘First Footsteps in East Africa’ by Richard Burton published in 1856 (http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burton/richard/b97f/), the author mentioned how the Somalis believed that the mosquito bites were responsible for the deadly fevers (malaria). In his documentation of this, Richard Burton dismissed this Somali indigenous knowledge as superstition. 40 years after the publication of Richard Burton comments Somalis were proven right when Sir Ronald Ross who was born in England discovered that the Mosquitoes were in fact the cause of Malaria.