Briton to recreate first African circumnavigation

Recreatting the great voyage

British sailor Philip Beale aims to rewrite a bit of African history by sailing round the continent in a boat built with the same materials he believes the Phoenicians used 2,500 years ago to make the same trip.

Beale believes that Egyptian King Necho II in 600 BC commissioned the Phoenicians, the dominant seafarers of the era, to see if it was possible to sail round Africa.

The Herodotus told

The Phoenicians set out from the Red Sea and sailed the southern sea. Whenever autumn came they landed and planted grain in the part of Libya they had reached, and there they waited for harvest time. Then, after gathering the crop, they continued their voyage, so that two years had passed. It was in the third year that they rounded the Pillars of Heracles and returned to Egypt. There they claimed and some may believe it, though I do not, that when sailing around Libya they had the sun on their right hand.

That pretty nifty, I've always figured that there was more than a possibilty of cultures mingling and traveleing a good deal further than we believe them to currently.

There coastal skills* were pretty good and there ships capable by this time period/ Earlier voygage would have been possible but they don't seem to have left evidence of their success.

*This voygage was a classic coastal voyage - relying on the coast to provide supplies.

reply to post by Hanslune


Excuseme for a moment as I remove my hand from my forehead, for some reason I was thinking they were taking a mostly oceanic route. Yeesh.
Yeah, the coastal trip is a very real possibility, it'd be great if someone were to beable to find some evidence of their trip, just 'cause the guyy may make it is not proof that the Phoenicians made the trip, though it helps the arguement.

A good piece of evidence comes from the doubts of Herodotus himself. The fact he found there claim that the sun wasn't in the right position

Which it would appear to someone south of the equator. It would be good if very difficult to find there stopping points on the voyage.

reply to post by Hanslune


What Herodetus is refering, by the hand of the sun, is that when ancient mariners navigated, they used the rising sun as a landmark along with the coast line to keep track of where they are.
If you left port with the sunrise on your left and the coast on your right,
then you are headed south.
If the sun rises on the right and coast on the right then you are headed north and so on.

I would bet that there were traders that were sailing all the way down to the horn from both sides for quite some time before that.
People had been sailing all across the med and well out into the atlantic and into the north sea for hundreds of years by then.
The polynesians were settling polynesia at the same.

Howdy AP ATS

Ah not quite right on that explanation: Here is what Herodotus meant.

Herodotus finishes the story with a surprising conclusion:

"the Phoenicians made a statement which I myself do not believe (though others may if they wish) to the effect that they sailed west around the southern end of Africa, they had the sun on their right".

This is exactly what they would have seen going west around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, because the sun appears to the right when traveling westward in the southern hemisphere, but how could Herodotus have known this at such an early date if the journey did not take place.

I would bet that there were traders that were sailing all the way down to the horn from both sides for quite some time before that.

Hans: Unfortunately there is no evidence for that - ie materials from one area in another. There was probably local trade but little if any from outside the area, except around east africa.(AFAIK)

People had been sailing all across the med and well out into the atlantic and into the north sea for hundreds of years by then.

Hans: Yes they had and their is extensive evidence for that movement

The polynesians were settling polynesia at the same.

Hans: At this time frame they were colonizing the Cook Islands, Tahiti, the Tuamotus and the Marquesas Islands.