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The reality and truth of divine revelation is realized most of all in the lived faith of the church. It is here that prophecy has played its most significant role. Prophets are not called mainly to change tradition but to enliven it. Alessandro Toniolo's reception of the works of Victor Turner provides a deeper insight in the way this occurs. According to the modality of structure, antistructure, and restructurization, the inner dynamism of prophecy is such that it may lead people to new ways of realizing and living the core of Christian faith. In doing so, they may appear as marginal and as if departing from the core of the church, but in reality they are rearranging the way they live the Christian mystery in ways that better fit their times. The inner power of true prophecy is not centrifugal but centripetal, leading anew towards the core of faith.

This chapter reviews the settlements in Ampelome, Arsinoe/Kleopatris, Arsinoe near Deire, Arsinoe Trogodytika, Berenike Epi Dires, Berenike Ezion Geber, Berenike near Sabai, Berenike Panchrysos, Berenike Trogodytika, Dioskorides, Kleopatris, Klysma, Leuke Kome, Leukos Limen, Myos Hormos, Nechesia, Philotera, and Ptolemais Theron. Berenike was located on the western shore of the Red Sea, near the Bab el-Mandeb. Klysma was an important naval station in late antiquity and the early Byzantine period. Myos Hormos had a large port with a “curved entrance”; offshore were three islands. It was also the chief port for trade with Africa and India. Ptolemais was founded for the purpose of hunting elephants in the nearby hunting grounds.

Ampelome/Ampelone was likely founded by Ptolemy II along the Arabian Red Sea coast. Leuke Kome played a key role in maritime commerce and overland caravan trade passing en route to Petra. Aila had much commercial interaction with areas in the Indian Ocean. Evidence suggests that the canal was not used perennially, but functioned only during the Nile's inundation season—from sometime in September to December/January. Other early Roman ports addressed include Abu Sha'ar, Philoteras, Myos Hormos, Marsa Nakari, Ptolemais (Epi)Theron, Adulis, the Farasan islands, Opônê, Kané, Moscha Limen, and Socotra. Pliny writes that sailing times from the northern Red Sea emporia like Berenike to southern Arabian ports such as Qana' were about thirty days. Even the written sources reveal only a fraction of what could be learned about commercial and governmental activities in the last centuries B.C.E.

This chapter focuses on the trait of landscapes that makes it hard to determine where it starts and where it ends. Finding the edge of landscapes raises a host of questions regarding, among other things, its quantifiability and measurability. This chapter discusses and explores the edge or edges of landscapes as an instance of “liminology.” A liminological study is defined by taking the understanding of something to its limit — to its “limen.” Before the edge of landscapes can be further studied, two extremes must first be considered: the Salient Edge, which stands out and is unambiguous in its presentation, and the Subtle Edge, which is ambiguous in its appearance and is so integral to a given phenomenon as to be barely, if at all, distinguishable from the phenomenon itself.