About the Event

What happened?

A fleet of ships undertook an expedition to Ta-Netjer, the land of Punt. Five of them returned to Thebes carrying live myrrh trees, green ana gum, bags of gold dust, ingots of pure gold, bricks of electrum, and ivory tusks.

How was it done?

Either the fleet circumnavigated Africa (a journey of 23,150 km) the way that the Phoenicians were doing it, and as historian Auguste Mariette proposed, or it undertook a journey of 2,590 km down the Red Sea with the aid of a canal. The latter seems more plausible and there is plenty of evidence for the existance of a canal.

Either way, it was an extraordinary achievement for a nation without maritime experience and insufficient timber to build a fleet.

Who did it?

According to the inscriptions in her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, Hatshepsut ordered the expedition and Nehesj commanded it.

Where was the land of Punt?

The land of Punt, called by the Egyptians "Ta-Netjer" or the Land of God, took on various meanings and its location is disputed amongst Egyptologists. It was seen as the source of wonderful things and presumably, if the Phoenicians were the purveyors of those things, there was reason for them not to be too specific about its location.

Based on the nature of the objects, there seems to be general agreement that it was on the east coast of Africa. Phoenician accounts describe rounding the Cape of Good Hope. A region in north-eastern Somalia calls itself Puntland, and there is an ancient trading tradition on the north shore of the Gulf of Tadjoura, which lies to the south of the entrance to the Red Sea.

There is also an argument that the land of Punt may have been at the current site of Aden in Yemen, but this is doubtful because over-land trading missions were sent to Punt by the Egyptians from as early as the 5th Dynasty. They reached Punt by going overland through Nubia (what is now part of southern Egypt and northern Sudan).

How do we know?

In the mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri there is a claim that the Hyksos were driven out of Egypt by Hatshepsut's armies, but we know from other sources that her grand-father did that, so there is room for doubt as to whether or not it was really one of her achievements. But clearly someone ordered such an expedition and Senmut, who designed the temple, had enough information at the time to get the details right. Auguste Mariette copied the drawings he found on the wall at Deir el-Bahri and apart from restoration work, the images remain essentially as when he copied them?

These are a few examples of his work:

Procession of the King of Punt Presentation of gifts from the King of Egypt
 
Houses at Punt
 
Ships being loaded at Punt
 
Counting the precious Myrrh

Why was it done?

The Phoenicians were bringing things from the land of Punt to Egypt, where they commanded very high prices. There is no hard evidence but clearly if the Egyptians could get what they wanted from Punt without the Phoenicians, doing so would have been to their advantage.