Mosylon

Mosylon
Approximate location of Mosylon in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The exact location is debated between Bosaso and Salweyn.
Location within Somalia Location within Horn of Africa
11°17′N 49°11′E
Type	Trading port
Periods	Classical antiquity – Late antiquity
Cultures	Proto-Somali
Location	Bosaso, Bari, Puntland, Somalia

Mosylon (Ancient Greek: Μοσυλλόν and Μόσυλον), was an emporium and seaport situated in northern Somalia along the coast of the Gulf of Aden during Classical and Late Antiquity. According to Greco-Roman authors, it lay on a cape or promontory bearing the same name as the entrepôt. Mosylon was a major commercial hub of the lucrative spice trade, famous for its high-quality cinnamon known as Mosyllitic. This cinnamon was exported throughout the ancient world, and for this reason large ships were required at the port of Mosylon to carry it. Its origin and early history are unknown, although Mosylon is first attested in the 1st-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, and Dioscorides’ De Materia Medica. However, its existence may predate these accounts, as it formed part of the Punt kingdom prior to its appearance in Greco-Roman sources.

The exact location of Mosylon has been a matter of dispute among historians and archaeologists. majority of scholars place it at the site that later became the city of Bosaso or its vicinity, while Georges Révoil identified it with Salweyn.