Hafun

Hafun (Somali: Xaafuun; Arabic: حافون; Ancient Greek: Οπώνη, romanized: Opṓnē, Italian: Dante) is a town in the northeastern Bari province of Somalia.

Pottery found by an expedition led by Neville Chittick, in Oponean tombs at Damo, date back to the Mycenaean kingdom of Greece that flourished during the 16th century BC.

By 50 CE, the area was well known as a centre for the cinnamon trade, along with the bartering of cloves and other spices, ivory, exotic animal hides, and incense.

The town is featured in the ancient document's thirteenth entry, which in part states: And then, after sailing four hundred stadia along a promontory, toward which place the current also draws you, there is another market-town called Opone, into which the same things are imported as those already mentioned, and in it, the greatest quantity of cinnamon is produced, (the arebo and moto), and a great quantity of tortoiseshell, better than that found elsewhere.Opone served as a port of call for merchants from Phoenicia, Egypt, Greece, Persia, Yemen, Nabataea, Azania, the Roman Empire and elsewhere,[14] as it sat at a strategic location along the coastal route from the Mochan trading center of Azania to the Red Sea.

Merchants from as far afield as Indonesia and Malaysia passed through the city, exchanging spices, silks, and other goods, before departing south for Azania or north to Yemen or Egypt on the trade routes that spanned the length of the Indian Ocean's rim.

In the 1970s, Neville Chittick, a British archaeologist, initiated the British-Somali expedition where he and his Somali colleagues encountered remains of ancient drystone walls, houses with courtyards, and the location of the old harbour.

Among these are lobsters, frozen fish, dried shark meat, and fin, which it mainly sends to Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, as well as some products to Kenya.

[20] In late 2014, the Udug Ltd. Company, in conjunction with the United States–based REDD Engineering & Construction Incorporated,[22] began conducting feasibility studies for the renovation of the salt production plants in Hafun, Hurdiyo, and other littoral areas in Puntland.

[23] The thoroughfare, which is 750 km (470 miles) long, would link major cities in the northern part of Somalia, such as Bosaso, Galkayo and Garowe, with towns in the south.

17th century masjid in Hafun.
The Hafun Salt Factory , built in the 1930s. [ 19 ]