It is known that Pharaoh Neho (612-576 BC), for the organization of foreign trade and navigation, turned to the services of the Phoenicians, whose state was located on the forest-rich territory of modern Lebanon and Syria, and whose numerous fleet also served as a support for for the Egyptian pharaohs.

Phoenicia had very favorable natural conditions for the construction of the fleet: convenient bays and estuaries on the sea coast, which could serve as a refuge for the fleet in stormy weather; an abundance of ship timber - forests grew near the Mediterranean coast on the slopes of the Lebanese mountains, and the famous Lebanese cedar and oak, as well as other valuable tree species, prevailed in them. The heyday of shipbuilding and maritime glory of Phenicia is marked in the history of the Mediterranean in the period 1200-700. BC. According to a lot of historical evidence, the Phoenician maritime empire relied on the developed coastal infrastructure of its seaports and fleet supply bases, and military and merchant ships plying between them had an unlimited navigation area. The Phoenicians can rightfully be judged as great navigators - they had colonies along the coast mediterranean sea, they were known far beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, including in the English Isles and even beyond the Cape of Good Hope. [Kurti, 1977].

Phoenician merchant ship. Like the Viking boats, the larger Phoenician ships were also able to keep a lag to the storm surge in the passive mode of navigation. In this mode, the pitching is damped by the collapse of the frames at the extremities, and the large lateral stability of the hull allows you to track the surface of the wave with a very sharp side roll, which ensures non-flooding in the middle part of the hull

In close navigation, the Phoenicians used mainly light merchant ships that had oars and a straight rake sail. Vessels intended for long-distance navigation and warships looked much more impressive. Large merchant ships had watertight decks.

On the warships of the Phoenicians, the use of a bow underwater bulb was noted, which testified to the ability of these ships to keep moving without germination on the wave, with increased flooding of the bow decks. The size of high-speed ships - galleys - sometimes allowed the use of two or three rows of oars (biremes and triremes), which made the navy truly all-weather and capable of active maneuvering in dangerous coastal fairways. Since that time, in all the languages ​​​​of the Mediterranean peoples, a generalized definition of a high-speed rowing vessel as a galley has been fixed.

The maritime fame of the Phoenicians speaks of the good seaworthiness of their ships and merchant ships, which is quite sufficient for long-distance navigation. Enriched at the expense of their colonies, the Phoenician, Carthaginian navigators began to gradually go far beyond the Mediterranean Sea. During this heyday of Phoenician and Carthaginian navigation, the sea route became a means of communication between the three continents of the Mediterranean and more distant countries that were outside Gibraltar.

Exceptional courage was required in those days, so that, having passed the Pillars of Hergules, as the Strait of Gibraltar was called in ancient times, to leave the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean, climb into the stormy Bay of Biscay, and sail further north from there. It must be borne in mind that through the Strait of Gibraltar, the depth of which exceeds 300 m, from Atlantic Ocean a strong surface current flows into the Mediterranean Sea, because due to the more intense evaporation of water, the level of the Mediterranean Sea is constantly lowered, so that only the influx of water from the Atlantic allows it to stabilize it. The matter is more complicated. In the Strait of Gibraltar there is also a deep current, directed to the ocean. How amazed were the tribes that then inhabited the Western European coast, when ships of unprecedented size, having removed their purple sails, anchored near their settlements. Men descended from them who traded in such luxury goods that made the hearts of not only women beat faster. In return, they asked for tin, which was very valuable at that time, provisions and young blondes, since, among other things, these people replenished the harems of their trading partners from the East. By exchange, they also received on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean the amber that was so valued at that time, delivered here by land from the Baltic. Carthaginian sailors also repeatedly sailed along the western coast of Africa. The description of one of these sea expeditions of the brave Carthaginian navigators is also known to us in Greek translation. This is the voyage called Hanno's voyage, dating from about the 6th or 5th century. BC. Although the expedition of the Carthaginian sailor is described as an entertaining adventure novel, nevertheless, all his information, according to authoritative historians, is true. It is possible to trace the path of the expedition step by step on the map, comparing the data about this journey with what we know about the geography of the western coast of Africa. Using the help of the Egyptians, and sometimes Israel and Judea, the Phoenician cities sent sea expeditions not only to the northwest and southwest, but also to the then less accessible south. In this case, the Phoenician ships through the Red Sea probably even reached the Indian Ocean. One of these sea trips is well written in the Bible, which tells of an expedition to the gold-rich country of Ophir, organized by Hiram, king of Tyre, and Solomon, king of Israel. But the most grandiose enterprise must be considered the sea expedition of the Phoenicians, which they carried out on behalf of the Egyptian king Necho at the end of the 7th century. BC. Within three years they circled Africa and returned through the "pillars of Melqart", having accomplished this outstanding feat more than two thousand years before Vasco da Gama.

Phenicia - narrow lane east coast Mediterranean Sea, bounded in the east by the Lebanese Range.

O Phoenicians first told by Homer. From the end of the 2nd to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, the Phoenicians were engaged in maritime trade, at the same time they founded settlements throughout the Mediterranean (the most significant of them was Carthage). Like all seafarers of antiquity, they never voluntarily moved away from the coast beyond its visibility, never sailed in winter and at night.

When the Phoenician society became slave-owning, it increasingly began to need an influx of new slaves, and this further strengthened the desire to sail to overseas countries.

So, no later than 15 centuries BC The Phoenicians began to visit Crete. Moving from there to the west, they marked the beginning of the opening of the Central Mediterranean Basin. From the islands of the Aegean Sea, the Phoenicians crossed to the southern shores of the Balkan Peninsula, crossed the Strait of Otranto and rounded Apulia and Calambria. Simultaneously with the Cretans, or somewhat later, they discovered the island of Sicily, and then discovered and colonized Malta in the 8th century BC. Having crossed the Strait of Tunis, they moved west and traced almost 2000 km of the coastline of the North West Africa, opening the Atlas mountain country to the Strait of Gibraltar. Coming to the strait, the Phoenicians for the first time got a correct idea of ​​the length of the Great Sunset Sea (3700 km).

Simultaneously with the penetration to the west, the Phoenicians began to explore the African coast in an easterly direction. They opened the bays of Hammamet, Little Sirte with the islands of Kerkenna and Djerba and Greater Sirte.

According to ancient Greek authors, the Phoenicians were the first to enter the Atlantic Ocean. They opened the entire western coast of the Iberian Peninsula, entered the mouths of such rivers as the Guadiana, Tagus, Douro, Minho. There is a possibility that the Phoenicians got acquainted with the shores of the Bay of Biscay up to the Brittany Peninsula.

The Phoenicians built ships for expeditions organized by their neighbors, who owned the shores of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf and entered their service.

AT 600 BC Egyptian pharaoh Necho ordered a group of Phoenician merchants to go to sailing around africa. About this voyage, 150 years later, the historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt, told, and with such details that he himself considered incredible. But it is these details that confirm the authenticity of the event. So, Herodotus, who did not have a modern idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe globe and the solar system, seemed improbable that part of the story, which said that when the Phoenicians went around Africa from the south, moving from east to west, they had the sun on the right side, then is in the north. For us, it is clear that it is this circumstance that confirms that the Phoenicians really crossed the equator, sailed through the waters of the Southern Hemisphere and circled Africa from the south. They circled Africa for three years, which is quite plausible, given the capabilities of the shipping technology of that time, as well as the fact that they stopped for 2-3 months every year to sow and harvest grain.

Around 850 BC, the Phoenicians founded Carthage - the greatest shopping center that time. In 500 BC, Carthage, having arisen as a Phoenician colony, already began to look for colonies. To this end, the Carthaginians organized a large sea expedition led by the Carthaginian admiral Hanno. He led a flotilla consisting of 60 ships, on which there were 30,000 colonists.

Along the way, Hannon founded cities and in each of them left a part of people and ships.

This journey of the Carthaginians was reflected in the “Periplus” (description of the voyage) of the naval commander Hanno, from which we learned that, having passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, they followed the Atlantic coast of Africa for two days, founding cities along the way. They rounded Cape Zeleny and soon entered the mouth of the Gambia River. A few days later, the travelers reached the bay, which they called the Western Horn (probably Bissagos Bay), then the South Horn (now Sherborough Bay in Sierra Leone) and finally landed on the coast of present-day Liberia.

Thus, Gannon reached Equatorial Africa. As far as is known, he was the first inhabitant of the Mediterranean to visit West Africa and describe it.

The results of his outstanding voyage were used only to a minimal extent: the Carthaginian merchants went through it to Kerna and organized the “Golden Road” (gold trade) with the deep regions of West Africa.

The discovery of the Azores is also attributed to the Carthaginians, but there is no indication in the literary monuments that they visited these islands. But in 1749, the Swede Johan Podolin reported the discovery of a treasure trove of ancient coins on the island of Kovru, among which were Carthaginian ones.

Simultaneously with Hanno, another navigator of Carthage - Himilcon- made a great voyage along the western coast of Europe and, apparently, reached the southwestern tip of England (the Isles of Scilli).

In this way, Phoenicians and Carthaginians were the first peoples of antiquity who swam in the open sea and ocean without a compass. Undoubtedly, their voyages should have enriched the Phoenicians with many information regarding the physical properties of the ocean, but nothing from their area of ​​\u200b\u200bknowledge has come down to us. Apparently, they were of the opinion that the Atlantic and Indian oceans form one continuous water surface.

Phoenicians - conquerors of the seas

From the very beginning, the Phoenicians were famous as the best sailors in the mediterranean and founders of numerous colonies. They were both pirates and slave traders. Later, they easily submitted to the will of other states and were only interested in preserving their free trade and considerable independence.

Already in the II millennium BC. e. The Phoenicians founded their first colonies in Spain and Tunisia, then they occupied Sardinia, Malta and Sicily. In distant lands they had separate temporary settlements, these are the Canary Islands and the British. Legendary Carthage was also a colony of Phoenicia.

During that era, they used deck rowing vessels also equipped with sails. Their ships were not afraid of the calm. The expedition could have dozens of ships with many people. There were few supplies swam along the shore and often made stops to replenish water and food supplies. On the long journey around Africa, they made stops to cultivate and sow the fields and then harvest!

The most famous travels of the Phoenicians

The first famous journey took place around 1500 BC, when the Phoenicians visited Canary Islands and began to explore the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

And in the VI - V centuries BC, they committed whole three amazing expeditions:

• "Egyptian" campaign around Africa. Around 600 B.C. Phoenicia was part of Egypt, and the pharaoh instructed to sail from the Red Sea, sail around Africa (which was then called Libya) and return to it through the Mediterranean Sea. Three years later, they returned in triumph! We are aware of these events Herodotus, whose story reflects astronomical details travel in the southern hemisphere, which were incomprehensible to him and thus confirm the veracity of the sailors.

• Colonization british isles for the sake of tin. In the 6th century BC, the monopoly and trade income of Phenicia was shaken, and the sea people took up mining and delivery of raw materials from distant lands. They found tin in modern Britain, the path to which was not so easy, although relatively fast - only 4 months. Sailors complained about frequent calms and short daylight hours.

• Sailing along West Africa. In contrast to the journey around Africa, here we know more details and the expedition itself was more numerous. Sailors founded settlements, fought with local residents, saw wide rivers and volcano Cameroon. This time, the Phoenicians did not make long stops and turned back to their homeland when food ran out.

Much to our regret, Phoenicians treated secretly to my secrets, and being one of the first in invention of the alphabet They wrote very little about their travels. Only a small part of their travels has come down to us, and in the Middle Ages, many of their discoveries were completely forgotten and rediscovered.

Phoenicia is one of the oldest countries, which was located on the Mediterranean coast, on the territory of modern Syria, Israel and Lebanon. The population of the country managed to build a powerful civilization, the basis of which was maritime trade and craft.

Culture of Ancient Phoenicia

Also very high level the culture and science of the ancient Phoenicians were developed: they had their own alphabet, which was eventually adopted by the Greeks. The peak of the heyday of the Phoenician civilization dates back to about 1 thousand BC. AD

In ancient Phoenicia, there were no good fertile lands, the constant rains, due to the climate of the Mediterranean, also did not allow the Phoenicians to engage in agriculture. The only way out for the inhabitants of the country was the occupation of navigation, which significantly expanded trade relations with other peoples, and the abundance of forests allowed them to build ships on their own.

Navigation and trade relations

The Phoenicians built very durable ships that were not afraid of either storms or storms. It was the Phoenicians who first modeled and built ships with a keel, equipped with sheathing on the sides of the vessel - this significantly increased their speed.

Also, their ships were equipped with special compartments for the transport of cargo, which were located above the deck. Due to the strength of their ships, the Phoenicians had the opportunity to go to the Atlantic Ocean, which at that time was not available to many sailors in the Mediterranean.

The maritime strategy of the Phoenicians was striking in its thoughtfulness: they built special bays along the coast so that in the event of a storm, ships could remain safe. With the help of navigation, the ancient Phoenicians were able to establish their colonies in places where their ships could reach.

One of the most famous cities colonized by Phoenician navigators was Carthage, which eventually became the center to which all Phoenician colonial cities obeyed. Naturally, the title of the best navigators at that time was identical to the title of the best merchants.

What did the Phoenicians trade?

The Phoenicians sold in other countries what their country was rich in: first of all, red fabrics (the Phoenicians learned to extract red paint from shellfish thrown ashore by a storm), transparent glass produced by Phoenician artisans, Lebanese cedar wood, grape wine and olive oil. oil.

The Phoenician navigators did not return home empty-handed either: in Egypt they bought grain and papyrus sheets, in Spain - silver and copper.

Also, the main goods of the Phoenicians were slaves, which they bought in other countries and sold at home in order for them to build new ships. Also, shackled slaves were used by Phoenician sailors for rowing.

Sometimes the seafarers of Phoenicia did not hesitate to rob: as soon as an opportunity was provided, they captured other people's ships and robbed small port cities.

Forced out of the sea by the Greeks

However, as a result of internal strife and a significant shortage of material for the construction of new ships, the Phoenicians were forced out of the trade and maritime business by the Greeks, who also learned how to build durable and more advanced ships.

The World History. Volume 3 Age of Iron Badak Alexander Nikolaevich

Sea travel of the Phoenicians

Enriched at the expense of their colonies, the Phoenician, Carthaginian navigators began to gradually go far beyond the Mediterranean Sea. During this heyday of Phoenician and Carthaginian navigation, the sea route became a means of communication between the three continents of the Mediterranean and more distant countries that were outside Gibraltar.

The Phoenicians were the first of the peoples of the Mediterranean to reach the shores of present-day England and here they received tin, which was very valuable at that time. By exchange, they also received on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean the amber that was so valued at that time, delivered here by land from the Baltic.

Carthaginian sailors, entering the ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar, which they called the "pillars of Melkart" (the supreme god of Tyr), also repeatedly sailed along the western coast of Africa.

The description of one of these sea expeditions of the brave Carthaginian navigators is also known to us in Greek translation. This is the voyage called Hanno's voyage, dating from about the 6th or 5th century. BC e. Although the expedition of the Carthaginian sailor is described as an entertaining adventure novel, nevertheless, all his information, according to authoritative historians, is true. It is possible to trace the path of the expedition step by step on the map, comparing the data about this journey with what we know about the geography of the western coast of Africa.

Using the help of the Egyptians, and sometimes Israel and Judea, the Phoenician cities sent sea expeditions not only to the northwest and southwest, but also to the then less accessible south.

In this case, the Phoenician ships through the Red Sea probably even reached the Indian Ocean.

One of these sea trips is well written in the Bible, which tells of an expedition to the gold-rich country of Ophir, organized by Hiram, king of Tyre, and Solomon, king of Israel.

But the most grandiose enterprise must be considered the sea expedition of the Phoenicians, which they carried out on behalf of the Egyptian king Necho at the end of the 7th century. BC e. Within three years, they circled Africa and returned through the "pillars of Melqart", having accomplished this outstanding feat more than two thousand years before Vasco da Gama.