Cape Guardafui Ras Asir Aromata promontorium
Lighthouse on the extreme tip of Cape Guardafui.
Cape Guardafui
Country	Somalia  Puntland
Region	Bari
Time zone	EAT (UTC+3)

Cape Guardafui (Somali: Gees Gwardafuy), also known as Ras Asir and historically as Aromata promontorium, is a headland in the northeastern Bari province of Somalia. Located in the autonomous Puntland region, it forms the geographical apex of the Horn of Africa.

Location[link]

Cape Guardafui is located at 11°49′N 51°15′E / 11.817°N 51.25°E / 11.817; 51.25, near the Gulf of Aden. The archipelago of Socotra lies off of the cape in the Indian Ocean.^[1]

15 leagues (45 miles) west of Guardafui is Mount Felix, a steep cliff jutting into the Gulf of Aden from flatland. The mountain is believed to correspond with the ancient Elephas Mons (Ras Filuk in Arabic) described by Strabo.^[2][3]

History[link]

Lighthouse dedication plaque.

Referred to as Aromata promontorium by the ancient Greeks, Guardafui was described as early as the 1 century CE in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, along with other flourishing commercial settlements on the northern Somali littoral.^[2]

In the early 19th century, Somali seamen barred entry to their ports along the coast, while engaging in trade with Aden and Mocha in adjacent Yemen using their own vessels.^[2]

Due to consistent ship crashes along the coast, King Osman Mahamuud of the Majeerteen Sultanate, which controlled much of the northeastern Somali seaboard during the 19th century, entered into an informal agreement with Britain. The pact stipulated that the British would pay the King 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."^[4]

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 firm in Marseilles, but the deal subsequently fell through.^[5]

At the turn of the 20th century, the Italian authorities in Italian Somaliland finally made good on the construction plans. A stone lighthouse and radio station were eventually built in the headland.^[6]

See also[link]

• Maritime history of Somalia
• Geography of Somalia

References[link]

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