Jutting out into the Guardafui Channel, the promontory constitutes the easternmost point in Africa. The area is situated near the Cape Guardafui headland. It is joined to the mainland at the town of Foar, by a sand spit 20 km (12 miles) long, 1–3 km (0.6–1.9 miles) in width, and 5 m (16 ft) above sea level. The fishing town of Hafun is located on the promontory, 2 km (1.2 miles) east of the sand spit. Ras Hafun and its line of latitude separate the Guardafui Channel to its north, from the Somali Sea to its south.
Ras Hafun is home to numerous ancient structures and ruins. The peninsula is believed to be the location of the old trade emporium of Opone. The latter is mentioned in the anonymous Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, written in the first century CE. Opone is described therein as a busy port city, strategically located on the trade route that spanned the length of the Indian Ocean's rim. Merchants from as far afield as Indonesia and Malaysia passed through the settlement. As early as 50 CE, the area was well known as a center for the cinnamon trade, along with the barter of cloves and other spices, ivory, exotic animal skins and incense.
In the 1970s, a Somali-British archaeological expedition in Hafun and other parts of northern Somalia, led by Neville Chittick, recovered numerous examples of historical artefacts and structures, including ancient coins, Romanpottery, drystone buildings, cairns, masjids, walled enclosures, standing stones and platform monuments. Many of the finds were of pre-Islamic origin and associated with city-states and trading centers described in ancient documents. The Damo site, in particular, was suggested by Chittick to correspond with the Periplus' "Market and Cape of Spices". Some of the smaller artefacts that the company found were subsequently deposited for preservation at the British National Museum.[2]
Archaeological excavations at the western Hafun site have yielded ceramics from ancient kingdoms in the Nile Valley, Near East, Persia and Mesopotamia, as well as some sherds of possible derivation from the Indian subcontinent. Among this ware is a late Ptolemaic lamp fragment, Parthian glazed sherds, and Hellenisticlagynos wares. Smith and Wright have dated the finds to sometime between the 1st century BCE and the early first century CE.[4] Additionally, some ceramics affiliated with green glazed ware from Sohar on the Omani littoral have also been found in the area. These pieces have been dated to between the 1st century BC and the 5th century BCE.[5]
Hafun is also home to an ancient necropolis. Similar historical structured areas exist in various other parts of the country.[6]
During the pre-independence period, Hafun was governed by the Majeerteen Sultanate (Migiurtinia) and was the seat of the polity's capital, Alula. It later formed a part of Italian Somaliland, when the area was known as Dante.
In November 2020, Hafun was struck directly by Cyclone Gati as a Category 2 equivalent cyclone or a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm in Indian Ocean scale with windspeeds of 165 kmph and 140 kmph. This remains the strongest cyclone to hit the Horn of Africa and the nation of Somalia since reliable records began.
