But although the orientation evidence is lacking for the lower latitudes, the inscriptions are by no means silent, and over and over again it is stated that those particular gods whom I have found to be associated with southern stars came from a locality called the land of Pun-t.
HUTS BUILT ON PILES IN PUN-T. (Dêr el-Bahari Inscriptions.)
Pun-t was always considered a "Holy Land." Hathor was "Queen of the Holy Land," "Mistress and Ruler of Pun-t." Amen-Rā was "Hak" or "King" of Pun-t, and Horus was the Holy Morning Star which rose to the west (?) of the land of Pun-t.[118]
Maspero refers to an ancient tradition that the land of Pun-t could be reached by going up the Nile, where eventually one came to an unknown sea which bathed the land of Pun-t. Was this one of the great lakes?[119]
Brugsch[120] is of opinion that Pun-t occupied the south and west coasts of Arabia Felix, but Maspero and Mariette do not agree with him. The two latter authorities identify it with that part of the Somali-land which borders on the Gulf of Aden. It is the Cinnamonifera regio or Aromatifera regio of the ancients.[121]
The inscriptions at Dêr el-Bahari make it quite certain that Pun-t is in Africa. Hottentot Venuses, pile dwellings,[122] elephants, to say nothing of the products of the country referred to as among the freight of the ships on their homeward voyage, distinctly point to Africa, and I think a southern part of it. The Cynocephalus ape, perhaps, is more doubtful.
The first organised expedition to Pun-t of which we hear anything is that organised by Se-ānχ-ka-Rā, the last king of the 11th Theban dynasty. This was a new traffic by way of the Red Sea. There was then no canal in existence joining the sea with the Nile; the expedition went by land to Coptos.[123]
CYNOCEPHALUS APE WITH MOON EMBLEM.