Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph taken from the railway
     between Ismailia and Suez, on the eastern shore of the lake.

Another of Necho’s enterprises excited the admiration of his contemporaries, and remained for ever in the memory of the people.  The Carthaginians had discovered on the ocean coast of Libya, a country rich in gold, ivory, precious woods, pepper, and spices, but their political jealousy prevented other nations from following in their wake in the interests of trade.  The Egyptians possibly may have undertaken to dispute their monopoly, or the Phoenicians may have desired to reach their colony by a less frequented highway than the Mediterranean.  The merchants of the Said and the Delta had never entirely lost touch with the people dwelling on the shores of the Red Sea, and though the royal fleets no longer pursued their course down it on their way to Punt as in the days of Hatshopsitu and Ramses III., private individuals ventured from time to time to open trade communications with the ancient “Ladders of Incense.”  Necho despatched the Phoenician captains of his fleet in search of new lands, and they started from the neighbourhood of Suez, probably accompanied by native pilots accustomed to navigate in those waters.  The undertaking, fraught with difficulty even in the last century, was, indeed, a formidable one for the small vessels of the Saite period.  They sailed south for months with the east to the left of them, and on their right the continent which seemed to extend indefinitely before them.  Towards the autumn they disembarked on some convenient shore, sowed the wheat with which they were provided, and waited till the crop was ripe; having reaped the harvest, they again took to the sea.  Any accurate remembrance of what they saw was soon effaced; they could merely recollect that, having reached a certain point, they observed with astonishment that the sun appeared to have reversed its course, and now rose on their right hand.  This meant that they had turned the southern extremity of Africa and were unconsciously sailing northwards.  In the third year they passed through the pillars of Hercules and reached Egypt in safety.  The very limited knowledge of navigation possessed by the mariners of that day rendered this voyage fruitless; the dangerous route thus opened up to commerce remained unused, and its discovery was remembered only as a curious feat devoid of any practical use.*

* The Greek writers after Herodotus denied the possibility of such a voyage, and they thought that it could not be decided whether Africa was entirely surrounded by water, and that certainly no traveller had ever journeyed above 5000 stadia beyond the entrance to the Red Sea.  Modern writers are divided on the point, some denying and others maintaining the authenticity of the account.  The observation made by the navigators of the apparent change in the course of the sun, which Herodotus has recorded, and