Cana, Yemen

Cana (alternatively written Qana and Qana') was an ancient port city in Yemen, mainly a trading port for spices from India and Eastern coast of Africa. It is though to be located at or close to the present town of Bi'r `Ali.

Describing the part of his voyage after leaving the Red Sea and Aden, the author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote in 50 CE:

After Eudaemon, Arabia (present day Aden) there is a continuous length of coast, and by extending 2000 stadia or more, along which there are nomads and Fish Eaters living in villages; just beyond the cape projecting from this bay there is another market town by the shore, Cana, of the Kingdom of Eliazus, the frankincense country; and facing it there are two desert islands, one called Island of Birds, the other Dome Island, one hundred and twenty stadia from Cana. Inland from this place lies the Metropolis Sabbatha, in which the King lives. All the frankincense produced in the country is brought by camels to that place to be stored, and to Cana on rafts held up by inflated skins after the manner of the country, and in boats. And this place has a trade also with the far side ports, with Barygaza and Scythia and Ommana and with the neighbouring coast of Persia.

There are imported into this place from, Egypt, a little wheat and wine, as at Muza (near present day: Mocha, Yemen) ; clothing in the Arabian style, plain and common and most of it spurious; and copper and tin and coral and storax and other things such as go to Muza; and for the King usually wrought gold and silver plate, also horses, images, and thin clothing of fine quality. And there are exported from this place, native produce, frankincense and aloes, and the rest of the things that enter into the trade of the other ports. The voyage to this place is best made at the same time as that to Muza, or rather earlier.^[1]

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