Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa (Somali: Geeska Afrika, Oromo: Gaaffaa Afriikaa, Amharic: የአፍሪካ ቀንድ^?yäafrika qänd, Arabic: القرن الأفريقي‎ al-qarn al-'afrīqī, Tigrinya: ቀርኒ ኣፍሪቃ^?) (shortened to HOA; alternatively Somali Peninsula) is a peninsula in Northeast Africa. It juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. The area is the easternmost projection of the African continent. Referred to in ancient and medieval times as Bilad al Barbar ("Land of the Berbers"), the Horn of Africa denotes the region containing the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

It covers approximately 2,000,000 km² (770,000 sq mi) and is inhabited by roughly 115 million people (Ethiopia: 96.6 million, Somalia: 10.4 million, Eritrea: 6.4 million, and Djibouti: 0.81 million). Regional studies on the Horn of Africa are carried out, among others, in the fields of Ethiopian Studies as well as Somali Studies.

History

Prehistory

Shell middens 125,000 years old have been found in Eritrea, indicating the diet of early humans included seafood obtained by beachcombing.