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Cape Guardafui
Cape Guardafui (Somali: Raas Caseyr, Arabic: راس عسير) is a headland in Somalia, in the federal state of Puntland. It forms the geographical apex of the Horn of Africa. Its shore at 51°27'52"E is the second easternmost point on mainland Africa after Ras Hafun. It is named after the offshore oceanic strait of the Guardafui Channel.
Cape Guardafui is located at 11°49′N 51°15′E / 11.817°N 51.250°E, next to the Guardafui Channel. The archipelago of Socotra lies off the cape in the north of the Somali Sea.
Fifteen leagues (45 miles) west of Guardafui is Ras Filuk, a steep cliff jutting into the Gulf of Aden from flatland. The mountain is believed to correspond with the ancient Elephas Mons or Cape Elephant (Ras Filuk in Arabic) described by Strabo.
Referred to as Aromata promontorium (Greek: Αρώματον ἄκρον) by the ancient Greeks, Guardafui was described as early as the 1st century CE in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, along with other flourishing commercial settlements on the northern Somali littoral.
The name Guardafui originated during the late Middle Ages by sailors using the Mediterranean Lingua Franca: "guarda fui" in ancient Italian means "look and escape", as a reference to the danger of the cape. Another theory traces the name to the nearby promontory south known as Jard-Hafun, pronounced as Gard-Hafun. The town of Hafun still carries this name.
During the early 19th century, Somali seamen prevented entry to their ports along the coast, while engaging in trade with Aden and Mocha in adjacent Yemen using their own vessels.
Due to the frequency of shipwrecks in the treacherous seas near Cape Guardafui, the British made an agreement with sultan Osman Mahamuud of the Majeerteen Sultanate, which controlled much of the northeastern Somali seaboard during the 19th century. The agreement stipulated that the British would pay annual subsidies to protect shipwrecked British crews and guard wrecks against plunder. The agreement, however, remained unratified, as the British feared that doing so would "give other powers a precedent for making agreements with the Somalis, who seemed ready to enter into relations with all comers".
Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid of the Sultanate of Hobyo, which also controlled a portion of the coast, later granted concessions to an Aden-based French hotel proprietor and a former French Army officer to construct a lighthouse in Cape Guardafui. Capital for the project was raised by a company in Marseille, but the deal subsequently failed.
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Cape Guardafui
Cape Guardafui (Somali: Raas Caseyr, Arabic: راس عسير) is a headland in Somalia, in the federal state of Puntland. It forms the geographical apex of the Horn of Africa. Its shore at 51°27'52"E is the second easternmost point on mainland Africa after Ras Hafun. It is named after the offshore oceanic strait of the Guardafui Channel.
Cape Guardafui is located at 11°49′N 51°15′E / 11.817°N 51.250°E, next to the Guardafui Channel. The archipelago of Socotra lies off the cape in the north of the Somali Sea.
Fifteen leagues (45 miles) west of Guardafui is Ras Filuk, a steep cliff jutting into the Gulf of Aden from flatland. The mountain is believed to correspond with the ancient Elephas Mons or Cape Elephant (Ras Filuk in Arabic) described by Strabo.
Referred to as Aromata promontorium (Greek: Αρώματον ἄκρον) by the ancient Greeks, Guardafui was described as early as the 1st century CE in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, along with other flourishing commercial settlements on the northern Somali littoral.
The name Guardafui originated during the late Middle Ages by sailors using the Mediterranean Lingua Franca: "guarda fui" in ancient Italian means "look and escape", as a reference to the danger of the cape. Another theory traces the name to the nearby promontory south known as Jard-Hafun, pronounced as Gard-Hafun. The town of Hafun still carries this name.
During the early 19th century, Somali seamen prevented entry to their ports along the coast, while engaging in trade with Aden and Mocha in adjacent Yemen using their own vessels.
Due to the frequency of shipwrecks in the treacherous seas near Cape Guardafui, the British made an agreement with sultan Osman Mahamuud of the Majeerteen Sultanate, which controlled much of the northeastern Somali seaboard during the 19th century. The agreement stipulated that the British would pay annual subsidies to protect shipwrecked British crews and guard wrecks against plunder. The agreement, however, remained unratified, as the British feared that doing so would "give other powers a precedent for making agreements with the Somalis, who seemed ready to enter into relations with all comers".
Sultan Yusuf Ali Kenadid of the Sultanate of Hobyo, which also controlled a portion of the coast, later granted concessions to an Aden-based French hotel proprietor and a former French Army officer to construct a lighthouse in Cape Guardafui. Capital for the project was raised by a company in Marseille, but the deal subsequently failed.