The Greek historian Herodotus reports that Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt, around 600 BC, sent Phoenician sailors down the Red Sea with orders to return by the Pillars of Heracles, the Strait of Gibraltar. They sailed south, stopped each autumn to sow and harvest a crop of grain, and after nearly three years came back through the Mediterranean. Herodotus himself doubted their claim that, while sailing west around the southern tip, they had the sun on their right, to the north, a detail that is exactly what would be expected south of the equator. If true, it was the first circumnavigation of Africa, two thousand years before Vasco da Gama.
Before and after
- 7th century BCEIntroduction of tetradrachm
- 7th century BCEConstruction of Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- 7th century BCERise of Nyaya
- c. 601 BCEThe Lydians mint the first coins
- c. 600s BCEPhoenician sailors circumnavigate Africa, according to Herodotus
- from 600 BCE to 500 BCEArchaic Greece
- 600 BCEFounding of Milan
- 600 BCEBirth of Cyrus the Great
- from 16 March 597 BCE to 1 January 538 BCEBabylonian captivity
More in Exploration & discovery
- c. 326 BCEPytheas of Massalia sails to Britain and the far north
- 139 BCEZhang Qian's mission opens the Silk Road
- 399 CEThe monk Faxian sets out for India
- 6 September 1522Magellan's expedition completes the first circumnavigation
- 14 December 1911Amundsen reaches the South Pole
- 24 December 1968Apollo 8 orbits the Moon and photographs Earthrise
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 7th century BCE.