Category Social Sciences

               Around 330 BC, the Greek geographer named Pytheas set out on a voyage from the Greek colony of Massalia through the Mediterranean Sea, to explore Northern Europe. He was sent out by the merchants of his native city to find a route to the tin mines of Southern Britain.

               During the journey, he circumnavigated and visited a considerable part of Great Britain. It was said that he sailed around Iberia, then up the coast of Gaul to Brittany, and eventually, reached Belerium where he explored the famous tin mines.

               Pytheas was the first person to describe the midnight sun, and polar ice. He also introduced the idea of ‘Thule’ to the geographic imagination, and his account was the earliest that stated that the Moon is the cause of tides. On his return, Pytheas chronicled an account of his endeavour entitled ‘On the Ocean’. 

               The Phoenicians were extremely careful and secretive about their trade routes, discoveries, and their knowledge of winds and currents. They had two types of navigation; the first one was coastal navigation, which was usually a short daytime expedition between ports that were not more than 45 to 55 kilometres apart.

               The second type of navigation was open sea navigation. This was used when the Phoenicians sailed to far-off destinations, when they cruised much farther out in open water. During such voyages, they always preferred to anchor safely during nights. When that was not possible, they would steer their ships trusting the Ursa Minor constellation.

               Ursa Minor had been important in navigation because of Polaris, a fairly bright star in the constellation, approximately 434 light years from Earth. Ancient writers called Polaris the Phoenician Star.

            The Phoenicians were mighty seafarers of the ancient world. The coastal plains of present day Lebanon were home to the Phoenicians in the first millennium BC. They traded predominantly along the Mediterranean Sea. In the centuries that followed, the Phoenicians formed the major naval power of the region. They were the first people to venture into the western Mediterranean and beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, to the Atlantic coasts of Africa and Europe.

            Gradually, the Phoenicians established colonies throughout the Mediterranean. The most strategically important Phoenician trading outpost was Carthage, in North Africa.

            The Phoenicians grew rich exporting products such as wine, olive oil, embroideries, linen, fabric coloured in the famous Tyrian purple dye, and most notably, timber from the famous cedars of Lebanon.