Land of Frankincense and Myrrh aka land of Punt Ethiopia/Somalia

The Frankincense Trail,

The BBC have a show called the frankincense trail which I find very interesting, however the ancient Frankincense and Myrrh trail went around Arabia and Egypt but somehow the BBC forgot to mention the two countries where the best frankincense is found and even the ancient name was called Punt Land where the Ancient Egyptians got their supply, present day Ethiopia and Somalia. The lovely blond presenter who I remember her being in a gardening program was desert hopping around Arabia chilling with sheiks and smelling different Arab incense. Her and her crew travelled from Oman to Yemen to Saudi Arabia to Egypt somehow crossed to Sinai followed by Jordan then to Israel. Now it could be coincidentally only Arab oil producing countries that are allowed to be featured on the program but who knows, how could they feature all those countries without going to Ethiopia? Where the Axum empire main export was frankincense plus a few lions and gold and spices? Somalia's main export was punt across to Arabia all the way to the India. If the camera crew can visit Saudi Arabia how you not going to visit Ethiopia the most tourist friendly country with a well known airline called Ethiopian Airlines which has been running since the 1950's. Now I can understand the TV crew not wanting to visit Somalia's Mogadishu as they don't want be held ransom, but they could have gone to the semi-autonomous region of Hargesia where the port is the historical port of punt land Incense, its as if the crew deliberately avoided Ethiopia and Somalia as they don't want to be giving those countries any positive news feature Barack Obama is enough for the black people coincidentally is from East Africa Kenya. I watched it today and it featured the Egyptian Coptic Church celebrating Mariam, I was moved by this and would love to visit the spot in Southern Egypt where the Virgin and Jesus passed through when they escaped from Bethlehem. The blond presenter then highlighted how the Egyptian Copts use frankincense which the Ethiopian Orthodox church also use and have more access to better more quality frankinsence. The Ethiopian Coptic church and the Egyptian Coptic Church were connected since the form of the Christianity and only split in the 1950's when the Ethiopian Coptic Orthodox Church appointed their own bishop. But those two churches are historically linked I'm sure incense was easily transferred to Egypt from Ethiopia when the Ethiopian Church was linked with the Egyptian church. The Islamification of Egypt further isolated the Ethiopian Coptic Church thus retaining their ancient byzantine coptic chritianity..

After watching the program I got into my kitchen and started raiding my cupboard for the jar of myrrh from Ethiopia my mother gave me. I remember telling her I don't want the smelly yellow frankincense which is common around Arabia and is associated with an Arab smell of Oud. Frankincense is the the cheaper incense which no one in Ethiopia uses unless its for everyday church services, where there wouldn't be any point in wasting the good myrrh from Ethiopia and Somalia. The good crystaly incence is used for Saint days and holiday celebrations. As I heated the charcoal on the gas cooker and put it on the ash tray as I remembered how my nephew broke the special incence burner shaped in the Lalibella church design. I placed two pieces of the light crystal coloured resin and left the bad bits, the resin crackled as it touched the heat of the charcoal. Then the most gorgeous smoke arose just like geenie would out of a lamp, I cant describe the smell but it is more beautiful than any designer perfume out there. Its silky and gorgeous and I can see why the Axum Empire made such a rich fortune out this wonderful smell for thousands of years.