Charmutha was an ancient
harbor
A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...
located on the shores of the
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...
, along the coasts of the
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the ...
. Its exact position, between the city of
Yanbu and the bay of
Jeddha, is disputed.
According to
Diodorus the Sicilian, Charmutha was one of the most renowned ports of antiquity. Its
cothon
A cothon () is an artificial, protected inner harbour such as that in Carthage during the Punic Wars 200 BC.
Cothons were generally found in the Phoenician world. Other examples include Motya in Sicily from the 6th century BC, which perfor ...
resembled that of
Carthage
Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...
and consisted of two basins, the first rectangular, the second circular.
It was large enough to accommodate 2,000 boats. There was a wooded island with the possibility of market gardening, fed by many freshwater canals.
References
{{coord missing, Saudi Arabia
Ports and harbours of the Red Sea