History

Together with Eritrea and the southeastern part of the Red Sea coast of Sudan, it is considered the most likely location of the land known to the ancient Egyptians as Punt (or "Ta Netjeru," meaning land of the Gods), whose first mention dates to the 25th century BC. Around the 8th century BC, a kingdom known as D'mt was established in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its capital at Yeha in northern Ethiopia. Most modern historians consider this civilization to be indigenous, although Sabaean-influenced due to the latter's hegemony of the Red Sea, while others view D`mt as the result of a mixture of "culturally superior" Sabaeans and indigenous peoples; a very small minority even views the kingdom as wholly Sabaean and Ethiopians as the descendents of ancient Sabaean immigrants.