The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea or Periplus of the Red Sea (Greek: Περίπλους τὴς Ἐρυθράς Θαλάσσης, Latin: Periplus Maris Erythraei) is a Greco-Roman periplus, written in Greek, describing navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along Northeast Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The text has been ascribed to different dates between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, but a mid-1st century date is now the most commonly accepted. Although the author is unknown, it is clearly a firsthand description by someone familiar with the area and is nearly unique in providing accurate insights into what the ancient world knew about the lands around the Indian Ocean.
Although Erythraean Sea (Greek: Ἐρυθρά Θάλασσα) literally means "Red Sea", to the Greeks it included the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.
Read more about Periplus Of The Erythraean Sea: Overview, Date/Authorship, Opone (Somalia), Malao (Somalia), Aksum Empire (Eritrea and Ethiopia), Himyarite Kingdom and Saba (Arabia), Frankincense Kingdom (Hadramaut), Rhapta (Tanzania - or Mozambique?), Barygaza (India), Early Chera, Chola, and Early Pandyan Kingdoms (India), Remains of The Indo-Greek Kingdom
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“For half a mile from the shore it was one mass of white breakers, which, with the wind, made such a din that we could hardly hear ourselves speak.... This was the stormiest sea that we witnessed,—more tumultuous, my companion affirmed, than the rapids of Niagara, and, of course, on a far greater scale. It was the ocean in a gale, a clear, cold day, with only one sail in sight, which labored much, as if it were anxiously seeking a harbor.... It was the roaring sea, thalassa exeessa.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)