Desiree
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Member # 2991
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posted 04-06-2006 01:29 AM
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Jamie, both these voyages date hundreds of years before Herodotus, and even before Solon, for that matter. Proof that the Egyptians knew their geography much better than you give them credit for:
quote:
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The Phoenicians
Little is known of the origins of this group of traders, though their roots are in the eastern Mediterranean.
Driven by the desire to acquire new and more cost-effective sources of raw materials and to sell their products to markets other than in their homeland, the Phoenicians covered enormous distances. They were among the first to trace routes to the western Mediterranean and beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar) toward the Atlantic coasts of Africa and Europe.
At the end of the seventh century B.C., the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II, who reigned c. 615-595 B.C.commissioned Phoenician sailors to sail around the continent of Africa. Accordingly, he commissioned a number of ships manned by Phoenicians for the task. These sailed down the Red Sea and down the east coast of Africa. Every year they settled for a while on the coast, cleared a strip of land, planted a crop and, when they had harvested it, continued on their journey. In the third year they sailed through the Pillars of Hercules and back to Egypt again. They reported that as they sailed around Africa they had the sun on their right.
This statement, which those early voyagers of the 7th century B.C. could not have made up, indicates that the Phoenician sailors did indeed circumnavigate the continent of Africa, well before any European.
Archaeologists have discovered that the Phoenicians used coastal and deep-water routes for both trade and voyages of discovery. Coastal sailors only sailed during the day, from one village to another, always keeping land in sight. Deep-water sailors took routes farther away from the coastline but still kept sight of land.
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http://www.encyclopedia.mu/History/Phoenicians.htmquote:
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Hanno's 'Periplus'
The Voyage of Hanno, King of the Carthaginians, to the Libyan regions of the earth, beyond the Pillars of Heracles...” These are the opening words of the Periplus of Hanno, a Greek translation of a Punic inscription on a bronze plaque that Hanno dedicated in theTemple of Chronos (Baal Hammon) at Carthage.1 In this document the shophet Hanno relates how, in the first half of the sixth century BC, he conducted an expedition that brought new colonists to four Carthaginian settlements established where the chain of the Atlas reaches the Atlantic and then, having founded a new colony at the Tropic, proceeded from there to explore the coast of Africa as far as the Equator.
The eighteen lines of Hanno's artless account of his journey along the west coast of Africa are a unique document. It is the only known first-hand report on these regions before those of the Portuguese, which were written two thousand years later. It is the longest known text by a Phoenician author. Besides, Hanno has a fascinating story to tell: He then describes his various stops along the way and his interaction with the natives. stories of men that can run faster than horses, we visit a mysterious island, have to fight hostile natives, encountered crocodiles and water horses (hippopotami), survive an erupting volcano and encounter gorillas. They then Probably, Hanno made his voyage on the outer sea in the first half of the sixth century BC.
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http://www.barca.fsnet.co.uk/hanno-voyage.htmPoint is, the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho II, who reigned c. 615-595 B.C (dying twenty-five years before Solon was said to even have heard the story) had the Phoenicians sail around Africa, both through the Red Sea, around Africa, and back through the Pillars of Hercules again. Meaning, since the Atlantis story originated with the Egyptians and they had a good grasp of their geography, they would have not have been mistaken. Sorry, but that looks to me like a major blow towards your theory, and once again, pretty much vindication for the idea that the Egyptians knew their oceans.
