Ocelis or Okelis () was a port on 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 ...

, on the

Arabian 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 ...

side near or at Bab al-Mandeb, the

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

separating the Red Sea from the

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden (; ) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channel, the Socotra Archipelago, Puntland in Somalia and Somaliland to the south. ...

, part of the ancient reckoning of

Arabia Felix Arabia Felix (literally: Fertile/Happy Arabia; also Ancient Greek: Εὐδαίμων Ἀραβία, ''Eudaemon Arabia'') was the Latin name previously used by geographers to describe South Arabia, or what is now Yemen. Etymology The Latin term ...

. It is placed by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

a little to the north of the straits of the Red Sea. It belonged to the Elisari, and was subject to Cholebus. The place also sometimes appears as Acila or Akila (Ἀκίλα). Ocelis belonged to the South Arabian kingdom of Saba-Himyar and is known as a stop on the maritime route from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in the 1st centuries CE. In the 1st century, Periplus Maris Erythraei describes it as "not so much a port of trade as harbour, watering station, and the first place to put in for those sailing on".Casson, L. 1989. The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

reports their destination and describes Ocelis as the first stop on the sea journey from Egypt to India. Ocelis was visited by traders coming over from the African side on rafts with aromatics, myrrh, ivory and tortoise shell, this being the only report of African navigation in this work. The site of Ocelis is tentatively identified as at Khor Ghurayrah (Shaykh Sa'id) in

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

. During the 18th century, a port identified as Ocelis was known as ''Ziden''. It was described as a settlement of 500 houses with over a hundred ships in the anchorage."An extract of a journey through part of Arabia Felix"
p. 167 in ''A Collection of Curious Travels and Voyages'', London: John Ray, 1705 .

References

*Nobbe, C. F. A., ed. 1843–45. Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia. 3 vols. Lipsiae (Leipzig): Carolus Tauchnitus *Rackham, H. 1997–2001. Natural history: in ten volumes / Pliny ; with an English translation by H. Rackham, W. H. S. Jones, D. E. Eichholz. 10 vols. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Original edition, 1938–1963. Ports and harbours of the Red Sea Gulf of Aden Former populated places in Yemen Ancient Greek geography of Arabia {{MEast-hist-stub