The salt plain round Lake Assale (Karum) and the springs of Dallol, more than 100 m below sea level, where Afar cutters and highland traders have long cut slabs of rock salt that caravans carry up the escarpment to Tigray, where salt bars served as money.
The trade is described in detail from the sixteenth century (Alvares) and is probably much older; it is listed here as the point where the Afar country meets the highland economy.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not applicable
- Title
- Salt workings of the Afar
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
Afar clans of the depression take dues on the salt (not recorded for 1200).
How things stand that morning
Worked as usual, so far as can be told.
Charter
None (no charters in this world).
Council
Not recorded.
Communities
Not recorded.
Fairs and markets
Not recorded.
Militia
None recorded.
Walls and castle
None recorded.
Trade and crafts
Rock salt cut into slabs and bars for the highland markets.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Later descriptions only.
On the map: A point.
Primary sources for Afar
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The History of the Observant Traveller: the pages on Zeila, Berbera, Mogadishu and Dahlak, Ibn al-Mujawir (Yusuf ibn Yaqub ibn al-Mujawir) (about 1221 to 1230). The closest description of the Horn's ports to 1200, written about twenty-five years later by a trader and official who worked the Aden trade: Zeila and its traffic in slaves, ivory and the goods of the Ethiopian interior; the Barbar (Somali) coast with Berbera and Mogadishu, and the sea route from Aden to Mogadishu and on to Kilwa with its sailing seasons; the Dahlak islands with their own sultan and his dues; Socotra; and the customs and prices of Aden under the Ayyubids of Yemen. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.