Hanno Sails Down the Coast of West Africa—And Perhaps Even Further

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Hanno Sails Down the Coast of West Africa—And Perhaps Even Further

Overview

In about 500 B.C. an expedition led by the mariner Hanno sailed westward from Carthage in what is now Tunisia. Commanding 60 vessels on which were some 5,000 men and women, Hanno was charged with establishing trading colonies along the western coast of North Africa. This he did, founding a number of cities in what is now Morocco; but in a feat that would not be repeated until the golden age of Portuguese exploration some 2,000 years later, Hanno went much further. He and his crew sailed down the African coast, perhaps as far as modern-day Senegal or even Liberia—and perhaps, in the view of some scholars, even further.

Background

Some time after 800 B.C., the Semitic Phoenicians established Carthage near the site of modern-day Tunis. At its height, Carthage was home to some 1 million people, making it an almost unbelievably huge city by ancient standards. It expanded, adding colonies throughout North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, and Sicily, and by the fifth century B.C. Carthage had emerged as the dominant sea power in the western Mediterranean. In 264 B.C. Carthage would find itself in conflict with the Roman Republic in the Punic (the Latin adjective for "Phoenician") Wars, and 118 years later, Rome would completely destroy the city.

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