The Phoenician Ship Expedition is a re-creation of a 6th-century BCE Phoenician voyage conceived by Philip Beale. The replica of an ancient Phoenician ship departed from Syria in August 2008, to sail through the Suez Canal, around the Horn of Africa, and up the west coast of Africa, through the Strait of Gibraltar and across the Mediterranean to return to Syria. The objective of the expedition was to prove that ships built by the ancient Phoenicians could withstand the conditions around the African coastline.
The expedition reached South Africa in January 2010[1] and Beirut in October of the same year.[2]
The ship is twenty metres long and was constructed at Arwad Island, the site of an ancient Phoenician city-state just off the Syrian coast, by Syrian shipwright Khalid Hammoud, using traditional methods.[1][2]
There is varied evidence for the Phoenicians exploring the coast of Africa. Engraved in Punic on a bronze belt at the Temple of Baal in Carthage, there is evidence of a Phoenician sailing down the east coast of Africa. It is said that the Carthaginian Hanno the Navigator traveled for 35 days along the coast in the 5th century BCE.[3] In a story told by Herodotus, Phoenicians in the Egyptian area of Africa circumnavigated the continent. It is believed Herodotus was told this story when he traveled to Egypt.[4]