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The theory of Phoenician discovery of the Americas suggests that the earliest Old World contact with the Americas was not with Columbus or Norse settlers, but with the Phoenicians (or, alternatively, other Semitic peoples) in the first millennium BC. [1]
- Leaving The Homeland
- Phoenician Ships
- Navigation
- Sea Routes
- Famous Voyages
The Phoenicians became sailors in the first place because of the topography of their homeland, the narrow mountainous strip of land on the coast of the Levant. Travelling between settlements, usually located on rocky peninsulas, was much easier by sea, especially when carrying such cumbersome cargo as cedar wood logs for which the Phoenicians were ...
The Phoenicians were famed in antiquity for their ship-building skills, and they were credited with inventing the keel, the battering ram on the bow, and caulking between planks. From Assyrian relief carvings at Nineveh and Khorsabad, and descriptions in texts such as the book of Ezekial in the Bible we know that the Phoenicians had three types of ...
The Phoenicians did not have the compass or any other navigational instrument, and so they relied on natural features on coastlines, the stars, and dead-reckoning to guide their way and reach their destination. The most important star to them was the Pole Star of the Ursa Minor constellation and, by way of a compliment to their sea-faring skills, t...
Both Herodotus and Thucydides agree that the average speed of an ancient vessel was around 6 miles per hour, and therefore, taking into account stops for bad weather, rest etc., it would have taken, for example, 15 days to sail (and sometimes row) from Greece to Sicily. Colaios sailed from Samosto Gadir (in southern Spain), a distance of 2,000 mile...
According to Herodotus, the Phoenicians managed to circumnavigate Africa in a voyage in c. 600 BCE sponsored by the Egyptian pharaoh Necho. Starting from the Red Sea, they sailed westwards in a journey that took three years. The sailors of Phoenicia's most successful colony Carthage were said to have sailed to ancient Britain in an expedition led b...
- Mark Cartwright
Apr 1, 2016 · Trading Phoenicians appear in all manner of ancient sources, from Mesopotamian reliefs to the works of Homer and Herodotus, from Egyptian tomb art to the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible. The Phoenicians were the equivalent of the international haulage trucks of today, and just as ubiquitous.
- Mark Cartwright
Jun 23, 2020 · Phoenician ships reached Iberia and then looped around to return east with the winds and currents along the coast of the Maghreb. They visited new lands rich in metals, made new friends, and by about 900 BCE they had battled their way through the ‘Pillars of Hercules’—the Rock of Gibraltar and Jebel Musa—and out into the Atlantic Ocean.
But during Carthage’s long reign, the people of Carthage and Phoenicia proved why they were a great maritime empire. Bold sailors from Phoenician colonies would sail further than ever before out into the Atlantic Ocean sailing to parts of West Africa.
Apr 14, 2016 · The major Phoenician trade routes were by sea to the Greek islands, across southern Europe, down the Atlantic coast of Africa, and up to ancient Britain. In addition, Arabia and India were reached via the Red Sea and vast areas of Western Asia were connected to the homeland via land routes where goods were transported by caravan.
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Apr 3, 2024 · Phoenicians in the Americas? The Phoenicians were outstanding seafarers, successfully traveling the Mediterranean and Red Seas, as well as interior waterways and the coast of the mid-Atlantic.
