The periplus of the Red Sea, written around the turn of the 1st/2nd centuries CE as a kind of merchants’ handbook, obviously was used throughout several subsequent centuries thereafter. The text shows the far reaching trade connections crossing the Seas around South Arabia. Trade routes are described between South Arabia and many other regions as well as the goods that were traded at the time, the harbors accessible to merchants, and the possibilities for trade they would meet. The Periplus will be restudied in connection with the published archaeological record, in order to disclose the potentials of relations (trade and others) that were possible if compared with those of later times. In close connection with the Periplus, the so-called Incense road and its course (or rather courses) and function will provide further important clues to the relations between South Arabia and other regions, especially the Mediterranean and African coast via the Red Sea. Special scrutiny will be given to those text sections which refer to the ‘unexpected’ and the ‘exotic’ in the Periplus, which will be interpreted in the light of current historical, archaeological and epigraphic literature on the region.